Casey O’Neill to face Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 271 in February
An exciting UFC women’s flyweight fight between Casey O’Neill and Roxanne Modafferi has reportedly been scheduled to take place at UFC 271 in February. Following an initial Instagram post from MMA Ideas, the fight was confirmed by Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie.
Casey O’Neill is currently undefeated in her MMA career (3-0 UFC), will face the toughest challenge of her career to date when she meets Modafferi. In the most recent official UFC rankings, O’Neill is ranked 15th while Modafferi sits at 11th, with this fight having potentially top-10 ramifications in the flyweight division.
In her most recent fight, O’Neill finished Antonina Shevchenko with second-round ground-and-pound, giving her three finishes in the UFC in as many fights. With wins over Shevchenko, Lara Procopio, and Shana Dobson, O’Neill has an opportunity to beat a veteran in Modafferi who has taken down several young prospects throughout her career.
A true veteran of the sport, Modafferi will be looking to snap a two-fight losing skid in her matchup against O’Neill. Before her two-fight skid, Modafferi had a three-fight winning streak over rising prospects Andrea Lee, Maycee Barber, and Antonina Shevchenko.
With there being plenty of opportunties for new challengers at the top of the flyweight division, both O’Neill and Modafferi have a chacnce to not only crack the Top-10, but also possibly making a case to be just a couple fights away from a potential title shot. For Casey O’Neill, a win over Modafferi would be her biggest win to date, and would firmly entrench her into top contender onversation, a conversation she’s already becoming a part of.
Here are the fights that are currently scheduled and reported for UFC 271 which takes place on February 12, with a location to be determined.
- Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker (for middleweight title)
- Vinc Pichel vs Mark O. Madsen
- Douglas Silva de Andrade vs Sergey Morozov
- Jacob Malkoun vs AJ Dobson
- Kyler Phillips vs Marcelo Rojo
- Alexander Hernandez vs Renato Moicano
- Roxanne Modafferi vs Casey O’Neill