The MMA Hall of F@#$%&G Awesome: Roxanne Modafferi

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!”

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“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.

Modafferi 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 for thinking she was not long for the sport.

“The Happy Warrior” was not done yet, 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.

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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, completing a trifecta of rivalries in which Modafferi cheerfully defied the eyeball test.

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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.