Modafferi beats D’Alelio like an awkward box of hammers
‘The Monster’ holds a win over current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, had been on a four-fight win streak, and got all Mr. T at the weigh-ins.
Ronda Rousey, the most famous fighter in women’s mixed martial arts history, the most famous anyone in MMA history, quit after two losses in a row and six years of fighting. By contrast, beginning eight years into her career, Roxanne Modafferi lost six in a row.
It began with a KO loss to Sarah Kaufman for the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship. That slam was and remains the sole KO loss of her career – she got rabbit punched by the planet. Then she lost four more in a row. Still, her reputation as a WMMA pioneer was such that Modafferi got a shot at TUF. She left Japan where she had lived for a number of years, in order to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by TUF.
Modafferi beat Valerie Letourneau to get into the house. Then she lost to Jessica Rakoczy via slam and strikes. The UFC admired her indomitable spirit and gave her a fight on the Finale, but she lost that too, to Raquel Pennington.
Remember the indomitable part? Modafferi loved the training in Vegas and made the huge decision to relocate to John Wood’s Syndicate MMA. And now, however improbably, after 14 years of fighting, at 34 years old, she’s the best she’s ever been.
Since the UFC loss Modafferi won two in a row, then lost a rematch to Vanessa Porto. Then she won two more, and lost a title shot to Jennifer Maia For the Invicta FC Flyweight Championship. But it was via Split Decision. Then she won another one. Saturday night she had a stern test, literally and figuratively.
Sarah D’Alelio was the favorite. ‘The Monster’ holds a win over current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, had been on a four-fight win streak, and got all Mr. T at the weigh-ins, after Modafferi amused the crowd with a characteristically colorful entrance.
But at Invicta FC 23 Modafferi put on the best performance of her life.
And it came after she got dropped in the opening seconds of the fight. ‘The Happy Warrior’ said afterward that it was the hardest shot she had ever taken. When interviewer Laura Sanko asked how long it took for her head to clear, Modafferi said it felt like days.
But she descended on D’Alelio like an awkward box of hammers, returning the knockdown, and coming close with multiple submissions, before ending it with an elbow from top mount at 1:37 of the Round 3.
https://twitter.com/UFCFightPass/status/866134282544103424
“I’ve never felt better in my whole MMA career, said Modafferi accurately. It felt so amazing.
With the UFC starting up a flyweight division, Modafferi is a natural early signing. Or, given the split nature of the last win and the major improvements in her game, another title shot would make sense too.