Roxanne Modafferi on Lauren Murphy: “The only one I really want to fight right now”
Roxanne Modafferi takes on Lauren Murphy at UFC Fight Night 173. It goes Saturday, June 20th at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Per UFC’s official rankings, Modafferi vs Murphy pits the number five ranked flyweight against the number six ranked flyweight, respectively. Though Joanne Calderwood has asserted herself as the next title challenger at 125 lbs, the winner of this fight shoots themselves into a position to get the next subsequent crack at gold. The women’s 125 lb division is an intriguing one with fresh new contenders rapidly popping up.
Excerpts from my conversation with The Happy Warrior can be found below.
Contendership Implications
“I’ve been in this position before and it’s never good to look past my next fight. I’m just gonna focus on Lauren. She’s a really good opponent for me. She’s the only one I really want to fight right now. Like if I look at the top 10, a lot of people have missed weight. And I don’t want a rematch with Maia because she’s beaten me twice. I really just want to fight Lauren. And I have good ability to do it. I’m looking forward to showing my new and improved skill and strength on her.”
Roxanne Modafferi’s career encroaching into its third decade
“Dang, three decades. That’s funny; 17 years. I feel great. It’s exciting. You know, I don’t feel like I’m getting older. I can’t wait to keep going and going. I don’t know what to say.”
Dragonball Z and Lauren Murphy’s power level
“Defintiely over nine thousand, for sure. Like she’s pretty high up there. She’s probably Super Saiyan three by now. I don’t know if she has reached the blue hair level like I have. I think I might have finally achieved ultra instinct. We shall see in my next fight.”
Dragonball Z fan art and The Happy Warrior image
“It’s so cool that my fans are drawing me as Goku and Dragonball Z, that’s awesome. I’m so excited, always.”
Training during COVID-19 pandemic
“My training camp has been in two parts. Part One was quarantine part and I basically trained in my coach AJ’s garage. With like two or three other people. Now I’m kind of branching out and I’m training with Jojo more and a few other people. But still trying to keep the group small.”
Roxanne Modafferi quotebooks
“I have two quotebooks, I have a parental quotebook, and then just a general quotebook. Because my memory’s not so good. And I thought ‘man I better start writing down these things that my parents are saying’. If something happens, in the future I will always have their words to guide me. I love them. So I started writing down my parent’s quotes. And then I started hearing other cool quotes online and from other people like my best friend and stuff. So I made a second quote book and started writing all those down.”
Modafferi’s Memoir and plans for a second volume
“I’m currently writing my second volume of that. I’ve been writing a lot during the lockdown because of limited training. So I have a lot of time. So I wrote a lot. Still a work in progress.”
Check out the interview that I did with Roxanne Modafferi in the video provided!
