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Roxanne Modafferi Bio

Roxanne Modafferi (born September 24, 1982) is an American female mixed martial artist.

She is currently the #5-ranked pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world by MMARising.com and the #4-ranked 135-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women's MMA Rankings.

Biography

Modafferi's training began in taekwondo as a teenager in Pennsylvania, moving on to Mark Lawler's Kempo Karate two years later. Full of confidence, she then began attending the Dalton Judo Club in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Her description of that experience was: "I thought I was all cool doing Karate, like the movie stars, but then in Judo I learned what it was like to fly." She trained for three years to gain a brown belt in the style, and then graduated from high school. Before leaving home to study at the University of Massachusetts, a fellow brown belt brought Modafferi to a Royce Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu association in Adams, Massachusetts, where she trained intensively for three months.

Modafferi majored in Japanese Language and Literature with a minor in Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts. While at college, she found the Amherst Athletic club, where New England Submission Fighting is based. In addition, she trained at another Royce Gracie association in Hartford, Connecticut for about a year (necessitating a weekly two hour round trip), also investigating Jeremy Libiszewski's School of Self-Defence in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. During summer vacations in Boston, she trained at Joao Amaral's New England BJJ club, now associated with Brazilian Top Team. Modafferi says, "Those guys are tough as concrete is hard, and beat my weaknesses out of me when they found them." To work on her striking, she also attended the Sityodtong Muay Thai Academy's North American branch in Somerville, Massachusetts, run by Kru Mark DellaGrotte.

MMA career

Modafferi spent September 2003 to June 2004, her junior year, in Tokyo, Japan. This enabled her to compete in a number of NHB and BJJ competitions. She achieved a 3-0 mixed martial arts record in the Smackgirl promotion and defeated Jennifer Howe (who, at that time, was considered to be the best female fighter in the United States, if not the world) in HOOKnSHOOT.

In Japan, she trained at the Cross Point club in Kichijouji, which taught both Muay Thai and BJJ. She hopes to one day write a book about her experiences during that time, having already contributed several articles on the topic. After graduating in May 2005, she secured a position with Berlitz, teaching English in Japan and arriving for the second time in July 2005.

Modafferi earned a win by split decision against Cassandra Rivers-Blasso at Fatal Femmes Fighting on February 2, 2007. She became K-GRACE Women's Open-Weight Tournament Champion on May 27, 2007 by defeating Hee Jin Lee, Megumi Yabushita and Marloes Coenen.

Roxanne defended her FFF title against Vanessa Porto at FFF 4 - Call of the Wild on April 3, 2008. She won the fight by TKO in the third round.

She signed a contract with the American Fight League and was scheduled to face Tara LaRosa at the AFL's November event, but fought instead at the debut Valkyrie event in Japan after the AFL's plans stalled.

Modafferi moved up a weight class and made her long-awaited Strikeforce debut in a rematch with Marloes Coenen on November 7, 2009 at Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers, but lost the fight by armbar in the first round.

On January 30, 2010, Modafferi submitted Molly Helsel in the second round at King of the Cage: Toryumon in Okinawa, Japan.

Modafferi rematched Tara LaRosa at Moosin: God of Martial Arts on May 21, 2010. Strikeforce provided official permission for Modafferi to compete on the card. Modafferi won the fight by Split Decision.

Modafferi returned to Strikeforce to challenge Sarah Kaufman at ShoMMA 9: Del Rosario vs. Mahe on July 23, 2010. She lost the fight via knockout due to a slam in the third round.

MMA record

Accomplishments

• NAGA Fighter of the Year 2002
• Smack Girl World Remix Tournament 2004 Third Place
• Abu Dhabi Competitor 2005
• IFC Women's Middleweight Champion 2005
• Fatal Femmes Fighting Lightweight Champion 2007
• K-GRACE Women's Open-Weight Tournament Champion 2007

External links

• Professional MMA record for Roxanne Modafferi from Sherdog
• Mid-Atlantic MMA interview
• MiddleEasy.com interview
• Fightergirls.com Profile
• Full Contact Fighter
• Iron Life interview (Nov. 2004)
• Biography
• Modafferi's article on Japan from Bout Review USA
• Roxanne Modafferi's Official myNetSpot
• Roxanne at MySpace

See also

• List of female mixed martial artists

MMA Shirts

Roxanne Modafferi Photos