{"id":4635,"date":"2014-05-28T23:34:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T05:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/?p=4635"},"modified":"2014-05-29T07:23:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T13:23:01","slug":"the-re-birth-of-roxyfighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/2014\/05\/28\/the-re-birth-of-roxyfighter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Re-birth of Roxyfighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 28th was one of the turning points in my MMA career, and in my life. It was the day I beat Valerie Letourneau to earn my place in the Ultimate Fighter 18 house.
\n\"roxy<\/a><\/p>\n

It broke my 5-fight losing streak, and gave me confidence in myself again that I can still hang in there and win. It was so important mentally for me, but ironically, that fight doesn’t count on my official record. Therefore, sherdog.com shows me with a 6-fight losing streak, which bugs me.<\/p>\n

In the TUF house, I learned so much. I had hoped to learn more striking, but I learned lots of wrestling and jiu-jitsu.
\n\"team<\/a>
\n I adored my coaches. I learned how to cut weight by watching those around me struggle. I made friends and relationships, and shared experiences we will never forget. <\/p>\n

I grew as a person. One thing I realized was that I tend to be a little self-sacrificing. I’m too nice sometimes. Should I change myself? No. I decided that someone with a Disney-child-like niceness CAN survive in this world as long as I protect myself.
\nLike innocent Plato and Ralph the dog. They were assaulted and abused. But they survived.
\n\"plato<\/a>
\nVery symbolic.
\n\ud83d\ude42
\nTherefore, I made a few private vows to myself after several incidents.<\/p>\n

“Rise up. Get stronger. Fight again.” That’s the sign I made for Plato after he was assaulted and abused. Then I added, “Don’t back down.”
\n\"plato<\/a>
\nYes, Plato is flicking off the camera.
\nNo, the bruising all over my face is not from a fight.<\/p>\n

(if you are curious as to know about the assault, check out these youtube videos:
\n1) http:\/\/youtu.be\/L-HrdXlH0L4<\/a>
\n2) http:\/\/youtu.be\/5Q-9o4RTdeU<\/a>
\n3) http:\/\/youtu.be\/dKbd1LKcIpM<\/a><\/p>\n

After I got out of the house, my life changed. I applied those vows to my daily life, and it was hard, but better. I’m first. My life revolves around me. No more working overtime for free. Care about ME first.<\/p>\n

Since I had lost, there was no guarantee I’d be chosen to be on the undercard of the TUF 18 finale, but I decided to risk it. I quit my job I loved, left the country and friends I loved, and moved back to the US.
\n\"00roxymoved\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To Las Vegas, no less, on Bryan Caraway’s recommendation. My father freaked out. My mother almost immediately offered to join me. So I moved in September 2013, and my mother joined me in October.<\/p>\n

I visited a few gyms and was actually just about to join one, when I visited Syndicate MMA to honor a promise to my friend Amanda Lucas (Hallikainen). There, I met Heather Clark and John Wood. Heather and I clicked, John’s coaching style resonated with me, and I fell in love with the gym.
\n\"group<\/a>
\nThis picture is hanging on my wall. Members in this picture have since changed around a bit.<\/p>\n

I learned so much. I was chosen to fight in the finale against my former teammate.
\n\"ufc<\/a>
\n She had said that I didn’t train hard. I’ll show her that I train hard! I trained so hard through injuries, and made it to the finale. And I lost by decision. But I was so proud of my performance.
\n\"roxy<\/a><\/p>\n

I knew I had improved, and I knew I had to keep going. John Wood is an awesome coach. “We can keep your striking style awkward and work with it,” he assured me, and he has.
\n\"heather<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in the US, I can buy things cheaply. I get recognized wherever I go in Vegas, especially Walmart! I’m recognized 90% of the time I go into Walmart. lol I’m so happy when people say hi, or message me on Facebook or twitter or where ever. I’m honored that people want to talk to me. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

For fun, I watch anime – lots and lots of anime. \"ichigo<\/a><\/p>\n

And write a Japanese blog once a week. It helps me keep up with my Japanese language skills. I only am able to really speak on Skype to one Japanese friend, since the time difference is so backwards. I miss Japan so much and want to visit.<\/p>\n

I teach kid’s jiu-jitsu classes at Syndicate in the afternoon, write for MMAsucka.com, and do marketing for several sponsors. Good thing I saved up some money from my job in Japan. I always had it in the back of my mind, funny enough, that someday I might want to stop working to fight, and I had to have money in the bank to support myself. I therefore never bought expensive stuff, I never traveled, never went on long vacations, never went to expensive restaurants. Let’s see how far I can stretch it.<\/p>\n

I’ve been training hard, just waiting for another chance to fight. I hope I fight soon….<\/p>\n

I still love my gym. I’ve been training a lot with Jamie Moyle, who is just about go to pro and will rock the pro 115 division.<\/p>\n

I can’t believe it’s been one year already. I achieved one of my life goals that I had from the very beginning – fight in the UFC.
\n\"roxy<\/a>
\nIt was more like a dream, because a goal has to be possible, and when I had my dream, there were no women in the UFC. I have more goals and dreams and I’m continuing to chase them every day. Thank you for reading, and for sharing this time with me as I follow my dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 28th was one of the turning points in my MMA career, and in my life. It was the day I beat Valerie Letourneau to earn my place in the Ultimate Fighter 18 house. It broke my 5-fight losing streak, and gave me confidence in myself again that I can still hang in there and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fight","category-friends","category-fun","category-training","category-7","category-9","category-8","category-4","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roxannemodafferi.net\/RBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}