Headquartered in scenic Woodloch, Texas, the Mixed Martial Arts
Hall of F@#$%&g Awesome (HOFA for short) commemorates the
achievements of those fighters who, while they might not be
first-ballot selections for a traditional hall of fame, nonetheless
did remarkable things in the cage or ring, and deserve to be
remembered. The HOFA enshrines pioneers, one-trick ponies and
charming oddballs, and celebrates them in all their imperfect
glory. While the HOFA selection committee’s criteria are mysterious
and ever-evolving, the final test is whether the members can say,
unanimously and with enthusiasm, “____________ was f@#$%&g
awesome!”
* * *
“I started watching anime when I was in high school. I’ve always
been inspired by the heroes. They don’t always win, but they always
put their heart and soul into training and into doing what’s
right.”
—
Roxanne
Modafferi
As a mission statement for Modafferi’s one-of-a-kind career, that
opening quote does an admirable job of presenting her aesthetic:
proud otaku, fighting cosplayer and the nicest, most approachable
high-level competitor ever to grace the sport. While that covers
the “happy” part of The Happy Warrior’s nickname, however, it may
not do justice to the “warrior” half. Like her heroes from “Dragon
Ball Z” and “Naruto,” Modafferi did not always win, but she won
often, remaining competitive through nearly two decades of fighting
the best women in the world and pulling off some all-time upsets as
one of the most consistently underestimated fighters in MMA
history.
A martial artist from her early teens, Modafferi began training in
judo and then Brazilian jiu-jitsu as she entered college. While
spending her junior year as an exchange student in Tokyo, she began
competing in grappling competitions and then MMA, winning three
fights in six months. That led to an invitation to face
Jennifer
Howe at HOOKnSHOOT: Evolution on Nov. 6, 2004. More on that
later. Her upset of the undefeated mauler and her even more
definitive performance in their rematch, all while still in
college, set the tone for Modafferi’s career, ensuring that she
would be matched hard from then on. She lived in Japan for the next
decade, fighting in Asia as well as North America and becoming a
beloved cult figure for her anime-inspired cosplay at weigh-ins and
walkouts. Like
Dustin
Hazelett, a
fellow HOFA inductee, Modafferi
at her best was a walking infomercial for Brazilian jiu-jitsu,
using craftiness and resilience to defeat opponents who seemed
bigger, stronger and tougher. Her friendly demeanor and lack of
apparent athleticism or power, especially in the early days when
she was forced to compete at 135 or even 145 pounds, meant that
Modafferi would be written off over and over again, no matter how
many times she proved the doubters wrong.
The doubters seemed to have a point by 2013, when Modafferi, on a
five-fight losing streak, entered Season 18 of “The Ultimate
Fighter.” Chosen seventh out of eight bantamweight women despite
being the most experienced fighter in the house, Modafferi was
bounced from the bracket in her very first fight, getting punched
out by
Jessica
Rakoczy, a 36-year-old, 1-3 fighter who would go on never to
win another fight after the show. It was a low point, and even the
biggest Roxy fan might be forgiven at that point for thinking she
was not long for the sport.
“The Happy Warrior” was not done yet as a fighter, however, not by
a long shot. Around that time, she moved back to the U.S. and
landed at Syndicate MMA, where she came under the tutelage of a
top-notch coaching staff, including UFC veteran
Mike Pyle. It
may not be fair to credit Modafferi’s mid-career turnaround
entirely to Pyle, but as an example of a formerly one-dimensional
grappler who hit his stride in his 30s by developing a more
well-rounded skill set and surprising power, the parallels are
obvious. After joining Syndicate and dropping to flyweight, a
rejuvenated Modafferi went on a tear in
Invicta FC, challenging
Jennifer
Maia for the flyweight title and even picking up a couple of
TKOs with ground-and-pound that—dare we say it?—looked mean.
Modafferi finally joined the
Ultimate Fighting Championship by way of “The
Ultimate Fighter” Season 26, which was conceived to incept a
women’s flyweight division and crown its first champion. Thanks to
a
Sijara
Eubanks weight miss, Modafferi even fought for that inaugural
title, coming up short against
Nicco
Montano. That kicked off a UFC run in which Modafferi went 4-7,
a statistic that is not deceptive so much as indicative of the
extent to which she was in the thick of things even in the twilight
of her career. Of the seven women who defeated Modafferi in her
final stretch, two missed weight. Three—Maia,
Lauren
Murphy and
Taila
Santos—went on to challenge for the title. Of the four that
Modafferi beat,
Antonina
Shevchenko and
Maycee
Barber were previously undefeated, and her win over Barber was
one of the biggest betting upsets in MMA history. Speaking of
which: Modafferi’s 11-fight run to close out her career saw her
enter the Octagon as the underdog every single time. If that is not
a record it must be close, and it is a fitting statistic for one of
MMA’s ultimate overachievers.
After a split decision loss to undefeated prospect Casey O’Neill at
UFC 271 in February of 2022, the 39-year-old Modafferi retired from
competition. Already a twice-published author and an instructor at
Syndicate, “The Happy Warrior” is likely to remain involved in the
sport even after hanging up the gloves and wigs, but her legacy as
a unique figure in MMA and an accomplished competitor across
multiple eras is more than secure.
* * *
SIGNATURE MOMENTS: While this is Modafferi’s enshrinement, in order
to do justice to her achievements we must first focus, at least
briefly, on Jen Howe. In 2004, women’s MMA was still nascent enough
that trying to come up with a pound-for-pound Top 10 would have
been difficult, let alone a Top 10 for each division. However, it
would be reasonable to call Howe one of the five best women in MMA
at the time, and if there were a list of the scariest, it would be
hard to come up with a case for anyone else at No. 1. The burly
30-year-old was 12-0 with 11 stoppages, all but one in the first
round. She was powerful, athletic, well-rounded by the standards of
the era and brought an authoritative nastiness that put the lie to
every stereotype about how women supposedly fought.
All of that simply goes to illustrate how ridiculous it was that a
21-year-old college student whose physique at the time might
charitably have been described as willowy, less than a year removed
from her professional debut, was booked to fight one of the baddest
women in the sport—more or less sight unseen, at that. As Modafferi
told the HOFA Committee:
“I had contacted [HOOKnSHOOT president] Jeff Osborne while I was
still living in Japan as an exchange student, hoping to set myself
up for a fight after I returned, and he said the next card was
already full. I was sad. Shortly thereafter, he wrote back and
said, ‘We have an opening, but you wouldn't want to fight Jennifer
Howe, would you?’ I wrote, ‘Of course! Whoever!’ I had no manager.
I just wanted to fight anybody.”
—
Roxanne
Modafferi
Nonetheless, once the two women entered the ring in Evansville,
Indiana that night, their fight defied all expectations. Modafferi
wisely spent much of the fight trying to get the action to the
ground, thus avoiding pitting her own rudimentary striking against
Howe’s power. Modafferi won a competitive but well-deserved
decision, and when the two met again five months later under the
IFC banner, she left no doubt whatever. That time, Modafferi and
Howe engaged in a slugfest on the feet for much of the first round,
in which Modafferi took some brutal shots from Howe and kept firing
back, foreshadowing the toughness and grit that would characterize
the rest of her career. When they went to the ground, Modafferi’s
grappling was even more aggressive and effective than in their
first meeting, putting Howe in peril with an omoplata late in Round
2, and getting the tap with a third-round triangle choke.
Those two fights turned out to be a changing of the guard: Howe,
one of the most dominant fighters of that pioneering era in women’s
MMA, would compete just once more, while Modafferi was just getting
started. It also set a pattern, as some of Modafferi’s greatest
wins came against women from the same mold as Howe:
Tara LaRosa
carried a 15-fight win streak, including one over Modafferi, into
their rematch at Moosin on May 21, 2010. Modafferi defeated her
that night, another pound-for-pound quality scalp for the
collection, and took the rubber match a few years later. Her win
over Barber, whose blend of power, athleticism and killer instinct
made her a perfect modern analogue for Howe, was the consensus
“Upset of the Year” for 2020.
* * *
THE HOFA COMMITTEE SAYS: The committee has had its eye on “The
Happy Warrior” since her farewell fight last year. The HOFA charter
states that the Hall welcomes “pioneers, one-trick ponies and
charming oddballs,” and most inductees check at least one of those
boxes. Ever the overachiever, Modafferi qualifies twice, and nearly
completes the hat trick—if not a one-trick pony, she was at least a
specialist for much of her career. As an underratedly accomplished
fighter who debuted when the number of North American promotions
that booked women could be counted on one hand, yet was still
winning fights five years after
Ronda
Rousey had changed the sport and moved on to pro wrestling,
“The Happy Warrior” is a living legend. It is almost as remarkable
that, despite nearly 20 years in a combative, trash-talking
industry, it is impossible to find someone with anything bad to say
about her.
It is with great pleasure that we say: Roxanne Vincenta Modafferi,
you are f@#$%&g awesome.