When will Roxanne Modafferi fight again?

The number one question I get from women's MMA fans is when will Roxanne Modafferi come to Strikeforce? I wish I could give you a positive answer to that question because Roxy is one of the most entertaining fighters anywhere. Back in May, Roxy told Kyle Nagel of MMA Junkie that she was annoyed that Shayna Baszler is fighting for Strikeforce on Showtime. Sometimes going public can work but sometimes it can backfire. A couple of days later, Mike Afromowicz of Strikeforce told MMA Junkie that they were "in dialogue" with Roxy and Kaitlin Young. They are talking to Kaitlin and I wouldn't be surprised if she is Sarah Kaufman's next opponent. But Roxy told me soon after that Strikeforce isn't talking to her. A lot of times promotions will lie simply to silence the media. Were they lying? I dunno. The reason hasn't changed. Roxy is an American living in Japan. If a US promotion brings a fighter over from Japan, they want to bring over a Japanese fighter to justify the cost. I understand that fans don't like that reason but like it or not, that's the truth. So I expect Strikeforce to be interested in Roxy's teammate Takayo Hashi before they get to her...if they get to her. There's not much Roxy can do as long as she's living in Japan.





So what about a fight in Japan? Roxy's fight on the first VALKYRIE show in November wasn't exactly a challenge for her. It appears that Roxy is caught between the rock and a hard place of the politics of the Japanese fight business. For several years, Roxy has been affiliated with the WK Dojo. That is the home dojo for VALKYRIE. When VALKYRIE matchmaker Yasuko Mogi announced the second full VALKYRIE show for May, Roxy was supposed to be on the show. But when the matches were announced, she wasn't on the show. Something fishy is going on. Then it came to my attention that Roxy has started training at AACC. Of course that is Megumi Fujii's dojo and they are affiliated with JEWELS. On Sunday night, Roxy appeared on the Sportsgeeks radio show. I asked her if she is training at AACC. She said she's training there once a week. I asked her if she's moving to AACC. She doesn't know yet. That's her problem in a nutshell. Roxy has never expressed publicly any dissatisfaction with Mogi but there's something going on. My guess is if she wants to get back in the game, she has to decide which team she's on and then get with JEWELS matchmaker Shigeru Saeki and get on their next show...or get on anybody's show. Roxanne Modafferi is too good to be on the sidelines at a time when the women's MMA business is just starting to gather steam. Maybe this will do some good.