HOUSTON – Roxanne Modafferi is not in the best of health and has many reasons to quit.
“The Happiest Warrior” will compete in her last MMA bout at UFC 271,. This Saturday’s fight marks the end of a 18-year fighting career. It also marks what will be 50 professional bouts, including exhibition bouts from two stints with The Ultimate Fighter ).. The 39-year-old has spent much of the lead-up to her fight with Casey O’Neill discussing her impending retirement and Wednesday’s UFC 271 media day was no different.
” Modafferi explained the reasons she made her decision to make this timing decision. One was the feeling that I once woke up 4 full of energy. Let’s have breakfast, jog and push-ups. Now I’m waking up at six like, I don’t really want to go have mortal combat at 10 a.m. Like, my body just doesn’t feel like it. I really want to focus more on jiu-jitsu, I keep feeling that urge, rather than let’s punch each other.
“Also, I feel like, in training, after a hard sparring session I started getting headaches, and I don’t want to go down that path of brain trauma. It’s been a blessing to be able to fight 49 and not suffer from brain trauma. So I started wearing head gear and that problem got better. But it sucks to train in head gear because people grab it and I’m getting choked by the head gear strap around my neck.
“It’s less fun now, so I would like to be able 100% to my fight camp, but I fear that I may not be able. It seems like the right time is now to make some changes in my life
Watch Modafferi’s media day scrum, including how she felt dealing with retirement talk and the things she loved most about fighting.
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