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Roxanne Modafferi is a reliable veteran who has no plans of folding in front of a highly touted newcomer. “The Happy Warrior” will face Antonina Shevchenko, who just picked apart a tough opponent in her Ultimate Fighting Championship debut. As they make a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, let’s take a look at some of the numbers that define their UFC Fight Night 149 encounter.
Octagon performances
Modafferi joined “The Ultimate Fighter 18” and immediately made an impact when she defeated future strawweight title challenger Valerie Letourneau to enter the house. Unfortunately, she dropped her preliminary bout to Jessica Rakoczy. But by virtue of her previous strong performance, Modafferi was included in the finale card where she lost to Raquel Pennington.
She then returned at “TUF 26” and reached the semifinals after stopping Shana Dobson and Emily Whitmire. Officially, she has a UFC record of 1-3, having won over Barb Honchak and lost to Pennington, Nicco Montano and Sijara Eubanks. Meanwhile, Shevchenko is coming off a brilliant promotional debut where she outclassed Ji Yeon Kim for a lopsided decision win. Prior to that, she TKO’d Jaymee Nievara at Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series 11.
Striking accuracy
In her lone UFC fight, Shevchenko looked like the prolific striker that she is, landing 66 out of the 134 significant strikes she threw. That makes for a 49 percent striking accuracy that looked better in action than on paper. Modafferi, on the other hand, owns a 30 percent striking accuracy, landing 253 significant strikes out of 846 attempts in her four UFC appearances. Her highest output was against Montano where she tallied 132 significant strikes, albeit to a losing cause.
Takedown accuracy
With brown belts in judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Modafferi entered the UFC a credentialed grappler. But the ADCC Submission Wrestling quarterfinalist has yet to display supreme takedown acumen, at least inside the Octagon. Of the 21 takedowns she attempted, “The Happy Warrior”only completed three, which makes for a 19 percent accuracy. As for Shevchenko, the Peruvian-Kyrgyz was two out of two in her UFC debut.
Wins by stoppage
While not a knockout artist, Shevchenko has a well-polished standup game that make her such a shining prospect in the flyweight division. She has a professional kickboxing record of 39-1, with six knockouts. As a pro mixed martial arts fighter, she is undefeated in seven fights, with two finishes. Modafferi, for her part, owns nine stoppages out of 22 career wins.
Fights outside of the United States
Shevchenko may only have seven professional MMA fights but she has traveled around the world both as a kickboxer and MMA fighter. Apart from Kyrgyzstan and Peru, “La Pantera” has now displayed her skills in countries like the U.S., Russia, Lebanon, Thailand, Argentina, Mexico, South Korea, England and the United Arab Emirates. That’s why returning to Russia for UFC Fight Night 149 shouldn’t be a problem for her. This may not be the case for Modafferi, who outside the U.S., has only been to Japan and England fighting professionally.