Despite coming up short on season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), scrappy female bantamweight veteran Roxanne Modafferi was called back for a second chance at UFC superstardom as part of the TUF 18 live finale last Saturday night (Nov. 30, 2013) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
See how it all went down here.
The "Happy Warrior" was unable to get past fellow cast mate Raquel Pennington on FOX Sports 1, but left the Mandalay Bay Events Center with a certain sense of self satisfaction, pleased with the improvements she made in her stand-up since graduating from the combat sports reality show.
Then she made the mistake of going to The Underground to see what the fans thought.
"Someone I respected [at TUF 18 Finale] said, 'You belong here!' I was so happy I started to cry. But then I read the Underground Forums, fans negative opinions, and now I'm depressed. :{ Even my UG brothers who usually support me don't think I belong. They say that my stand up was the worst they've ever seen in the UFC. Oh, man. :{ ... It bothers me a lot when websites are like, 'This is Roxanne's sixth loss in a row!!' IT'S NOT, man, because I won my fight to get into the house. It doesn't go on paper, since it's TUF. But my mind is not on a 6 fight losing streak. This was my 28th fight. I'm on a two-fight losing streak, damnit! There's a difference!"
Hey, if UFC can market Gray Maynard vs. Nate Diaz as a trilogy (despite this), then Roxy can have her TUF 18 submission win over Valerie Letourneau.
But outside of that, it's been a pretty rough ride, as the loss to Pennington was indeed her sixth straight (on record). The question is, did she show enough improvement to convince the UFC brass she's worth a second third look? That remains to be seen, but I gather she won't be cruising the forums for feedback if they do.
Thoughts?