Roxanne Modafferi's Blog, page 14

My Invicta 23 experience!

I flew to Kansas City Wednesday night, and Thursday was a little crazy. One of my coaches had to catch a later flight, and the other coach’s flight got delayed like 7 hours because of snow in Denver. My friend Jessica suddenly couldn’t come because of travel arragement issues, and I rearranged our sleeping arragements last minute. But it worked out. John arrived in time to do the photo shoot….thanks, photo team, for waiting a little longer for us!



I got to chat with Mike and Kristy Crilly, fans who became sponsors, and then friends!



It was epic.

Then I cut weight a bit with mitts and jump rope in a sauna suit.

Friday I woke up early and finished my water cut in the bathtub, weighed in, and went out for burritos with my team, new friends, and Tonya Evinger!

Invicta prep! Mental challenges, my student, Rowdy Rollers BJJ, team, choked out, sponsors

Do you ever get that day where you’ve been working hard and one day you feel like crap and you decide to stay home and take a day off from exercising because you know you’d just have a bad performance and it’s better to rest up and be better the next day?

That’s the smart thing to do, but I never do it. I cannot rest.

I’d rather go and fail or do poorly, than not go. “You can’t ‘not even try!'” I would tell myself. Even my dad said to me one time, “Resting is difficult for Modafferis.” Everyone with my dad’s bloodline is constantly on the go. You should hear about what my Aunt Connie does daily… raised three kids while working as an elementary/middle school music teacher full-time, taught private piano lessons daily after school, taught choir after school (or what is school chorus? whichever!) and on weekends at the church AND THE SCHOOL, and SANG masses at her church…

She’s amazing. I don’t think she knows that I admire her. I love my Modafferi bloodline, but I’m also glad I have my mom’s bloodline, too. Her family is long-lived…. everyone’s lived into their 90s, and my grandfather was 102 when he passed. Maybe I’m not a vampire after all, but her blood is keeping me looking young. Or maybe she’s a vampire?!?!

But I digress.

Two Thursdays ago, I kinda lost it. I was so mentally tired. I’m not afraid to say it because most people don’t know about what a fighter goes through mentally. Taking care of yourself mentally is just as important as physically, for fighters and non-fighters alike. I found a pretty good balance in my normal life, but when I fight prep, my rest periods go towards conditioning.

I’ve been told that if a fighter doesn’t cry or have a fit at least once in their training camp, they’re not training hard enough. I’ve been doing MMA, jiujitsu, conditioning, plus teaching my kids jiujitsu and privates for weeks on end, only skipping martial arts on Sunday. But that’s my yoga day (I hate yoga so I’m still forcing myself to ‘train,’) and chore day.

Thursday I did my stairs conditioning, went into BJJ, felt unmotivated but did it anyway because BJJ is life, and then did MMA class. My mind was just so tired. I felt like the past weeks were one continuous day. I’d been sleeping but I felt like I hadn’t, you know?

I remember standing in front of my first sparring partner, Serena, raising my hands, hearing John say “Work Time!” and a little voice in my head said, “Again? I don’t want to do this right now….”

Damnit. Whenever the audible voice pops up in my head, it’s bad news. I haven’t heard myself think for ages. It’s something that shows I’m not focused, that I haven’t tapped into my subconscious instinct for feeling the fight.

We sparred and I performed like crap. In the second round, I sparred with Jessy, and performed like crap. One time she hit me and I saw flashes of white. After that round, that was it.

(Jessica happened to be taking pictures during my horrible round. ug! noooo)



I went into Casey’s office and cried on him for two rounds. -_-

It was weird because nothing was really wrong. I was so excited about everything. I was too excited. I was excited about my fight – great camp, no injuries, I’m in phenominal shape! My personal life is fine, my kids classes are spectacular, the UFC is opening 125, my future looks bright… “Why…am…I…crying?” I cried to Casey. lol My mind seemed solid, but my emotions were tired and my body was just randomly crying.

There was a disconnect there.

I’m gonna make fun of myself with a “feels” meme now.

“You know,” Casey said, “You are one of the most mentally strong people I know. It takes a lot of mental strength to do what you do.”

I keep thinking back to college, where I was SO stressed out because I had to juggle tons of classes, studying, part-time job, training, personal life, etc. I thought that was the most stressful time of my life. But I guess it’s not fair to compare stresses in different time-periods, just like it’s not fair for two people to compare their stresses. We are different people at different stages of our lives. If you’re stressed, you’re stressed. Don’t belittle it. Saying, “You shouldn’t be stressed because I just got fired and my pet died and my boyfriend left me” really doesn’t make me feel any less stressed, and in fact, makes one feel guilty.

Anyway. I felt a little better after that. Thank you, Casey, for always being there for me. He suggested I stop training for the day. (It was my third session of the day anyway) but then one of my favorite Rob Zombie song came on, and I felt the need to redeem myself. It’s never too late. One of my favorite quotes came from Ronda Rousey when she said, “Training to be a champion on your worst day.” On my honor as a martial artist, I will finish the class.

So I sparred with Mike, and I had a great match! Really great. I felt reinflated, if that makes sense. Thanks, Casey, thanks Mike, thanks Rob Zombie. Then I did the drilling cool down at the end and can say proudly that I finished class and didn’t give up.

I was kind of hiding from Coach John during class… I didn’t want him to see me cry. ._. Later when I talked to him, he said the same thing as Casey. “Fighters aren’t always going to have perfect days every day. It’s just one of those days.”

I went home and took an ice bath (gah!) and watched Transformer movies online for the rest of the day. lol Lorenzo had been telling me to take a break, but I had no time to take a break! I’ve been going non-stop….lucky I haven’t gotten sick.

Friday I had a really hard conditioning session with Lorenzo. x_x ug. I was able to push through that with no problem. Then the weekend was a little rearranged, and I was hoping that would help me mentally recover. It did!

So Saturday I coached my student Preston at his first jiujitsu tournament. There was only one other kid in his division. He used to be hesitant to do takedowns, and if he felt himself failing, he would fall on his butt (and promptly get mounted) rather than risk being thrown and slammed. So we’ve been training takedown strategy so much. I’m so proud of the fact that he went out there and bravely grabbed his opponent!



His opponent tried o-soto-gari, which is HIS favorite throw, so he pushed forward and tried for a single/ double leg takedown! I taught him to think o-soto, and if it didn’t work, immediately switch to the double-leg. Jessy’s been working a lot of wrestling with him, too. He started the takedown but they fell awkwardly and the opponent got on top and held him down with kesa-gatame, scarf hold.



Preston managed to almost get out, but then the opponent tried to mount but Preston got half guard. WEEeeee! getting half guard instead of getting mounted was something else we trained a lot!! They got restarted in the middle. I yelled to Preston to get his guard back. He got his guard back and immediately tried for the choke! He’s so good at it! His opponent spent the next minute fending off his choke.



Preston couldn’t get it and unfortunately lost on points.

Preparing for Invicta 23, kids classes, TV, life etc

My last few blogs were actually stories. This is an update!

Things are going splendidly. I didn’t really stop training much after my previous fight, so my weight is still low and my cardio and stamina are great.

Actually I really suck at maintaining my weight. I’m either gaining or losing. I gained a pound and then went strict with my diet, and before I knew it, I was literally at fight weight and felt drained on a Monday when I should feel refreshed. SOOOOO I ate a lot of tacos for two days in a row. lol And ice cream. And now I feel better.

My next fight is May 20th in Invicta 23 in Kansas City, MO. Invicta made these cool posters!

How I literally beat my fear to death

Imagine this…. cute little kid-Roxy, four or five years old, playing merrily on the playground. Here she is:

It was a nice sunny day. Kid-Roxy was giggling, climbing on the jungle-gym, running across the log bridge on the playground contraptions, running up to the fence and trees and back. Then suddenly, she heard a Bzzzzzzzzzzzz! and THEN PAIN! STINGING HORRIBLE DEATHLY PAIN, on the tender, sensitive skin under her nose right above her lip.

She screamed. She cried. It hurt so badly. A bee had stung her. She knew she was going to die. It was the end. The planets were exploding. She had to find her mother to fix things. Tears. Fear. Mother took the stinger out but couldn’t make it stop hurting. Yes, she was wimpy, but most five-year-olds are wimpy and cry if stuff hurts, but this sting hurt all the way home and the next day! She wasn’t even allergic.

Thus, she became afraid of bees.



Even the sound of the word made her shutter. If she was near flowers and she heard or saw a bee, she ran. To the other side of the lawn. Sometimes inside. Flowers were a thing of beauty….only to be enjoyed at a distance if there were bees, and to find out, she would inch her way close, step by step, looking around carefully, checking the petals….

For years. And Wasps? pppfffffftttt those things looked ten times scarier!



Just look at that black Angel of Death on wings! With it’s pointy stinger of DOOM.

You could call it a phobia.

She kept the heck away from bees and wasps passionately so she never got stung by a wasp…or another bee…but she knew they were evil.

Life happened and she found herself, a 13-year-old, exercising in her living room with her new five pound dumbbells she just got. A few years older than this picture. You get the idea.

She had just started Tae Kwon Do, and was a huge fan of Dragon ball Z. She wanted to be as strong as Goku and Piccolo and decided to start lifting weights to get muscles. She was listening to Mortal Kombat movie music.

Then, she saw it… a wasp. No, a monster. The Alien Mother of ALL wasps was stuck between the silky see-through curtain and the window. This thing was as big as an adult thumb.

Of course, she ran away and closed all the doors to the room. She knew her mom wasn’t home and dad was mowing the lawn. She’d get him to kill it later….. wait.

She wanted to get stronger and become a fighter. She had a bookmark in her favorite book that was a Halmark quote card with a face of a lion that said, “Do things you are afraid to do.” There was literally nothing more scary to her than a bee or wasp.

How could she be JUST training to get stronger, want to learn fighting to fight the bad guys, but ran away from a dumb bug? Dumb, yet evil and painful and scary and evil and……

I have to kill that bug, she told herself. Say it. Say it outloud. You’re going to kill that bug. “I have to kill that bug,” she told herself. “Kill the bug. Kill my fear. Get stronger.” That’s what they teach us. Face your fear and overcome it. But….

She took a few deep breaths. “Roxanne.” She swallowed. “You’re going to go inside there and kill that …wasp.”

She went into the kitchen, got some newspaper, and rolled it up. She went back into the living room, hoping it hadn’t escaped from the curtain. Praying it hadn’t. It hadn’t!

Her breathing rate increased. Her heartrate increased. She thought of Piccolo. She was so terrified that she thought of anything that could give her courage. She slowly approached the curtain. Man, it was so big!

“Just do it!” she said, raising the newspaper and whacking at it as hard as she could. She missed! The insect panicked! She panicked and screamed! The giant wasp’s wings and body making a loud buzzing clicking commotion as it banged against the glass window pane. She knew it was just dying to sink it’s dark singer of death into her body. She hit it again and again, the curtain cushioning the impact of the blows. It fell! It fell to the carpet. She fell to her knees next to it, hoping to see a decapitated body…but no, it was very much intact started running around! With a cry, she slammed her weapon down as hard as she could, but the bug bounced back and forth between the soft carpet and newspaper. Have you ever tried to squish something soft against something soft? It’s very ineffective. She realized this after the 15th time she whacked at it, but knew there was no time to get a different weapon. And she had no shoes on to take off. She resolved to hit it until it dropped dead.

She whacked it again. And again. and again. and again. and again. She felt slightly crazed. It wasn’t dying. But she would kill it.

She lost count of how many times she hit that thing, but it was probably over thirty. It finally oozed guts out of it’s broken body into the light blue carpet, and stopped moving.

There were a few tears in her eyes. She was not only scared, but she hated what she did. She hated killing things. She always saved the bugs (not stinging ones-she called Mom for them) that crept into her house. She avoided stepping on ants on the sidewalk. After watching Fern Gully, she decided to stop pulling up weeds and flowers, because every life has a spark of energy and is beautiful. She felt bad she just ended the life of another animal, and there it was. Dead. It’s life could never come back. But it terrified her. She knew it had to die.

She hoped that she had killed the fear inside her along with that bug. And she was right.

She forced herself to clean it up with a paper towel, rather than waiting for her parents. After all, it was respectful. She had ended it’s life, so she should take the responsibility of finishing the deed.

Just as she has suspected, her fear dissipated. She went outside and went over to her garden and gazed upon the bees…. while she had no desire to go touch one, she no longer felt that icy knife of terror slice into her heart.

my code of a martial artist

You have your own value system, code of honor, and rules for living.

what is right and wrong

what you should or shout not do

how to behave

The challenge is to follow these self-appointed rules when you’re tired, stressed, or emotional. If you are a human who interacts with others, you know that pressure and circumstances make people act in unpleasant ways.

Those are the times where self-discipline is needed. Those are the times that test our resolve and hearts.

Will you take an extra cookie when nobody is looking even when you’re on a diet?

Will you yell at someone you care about if you’re angry?

Will you lie about something you think doesn’t matter?

Ultimately, it’s a person’s choice what kind of person they want to be. I won’t judge other people because I haven’t walked in their shoes in life, I haven’t experienced their life experiences that made them what they are, I can’t feel the things they are feeling. That is part of my code as a martial artist.

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word, “Honor?”

I just googled the word “honor” and I see a lot of American soldiers, samurai, other warrior-type characters, and cell phones. (huh?)

Can you define “honor” in words? Protection, respect, fulfill an obligation. An obligation to who? To yourself and to other people.



Pride – I feel like lately, it’s getting a negative connotation, where people think too highly of themselves and are ‘prideful.’ For me, it’s not. I have pride so I won’t stop training until I fall over. My pride won’t allow me to slack off on the assault exercise bike and let the numbers fall, even when my trainer Lorenzo walks away for a second and stops watching. I hold myself to a high standard and if I break it, I will be letting myself down and it will damage my self-esteem. Pride lets me sleep at night if I fail at something, because I KNOW I gave it 100%.

Growing up being teased, I admired super heroes who did “the right thing.” They helped others, they sacrificed something to follow some moral principle. They told the truth even if it meant hurting someone’s feelings, in order to fix a situation in the long run. They followed the rules. My teachers and parents told me, “Life isn’t always fair” like a mantra over and over again. Therefore, growing up, it was very important for me to do the “right” thing because I wanted so badly for the world to be fair. The “right” thing is often the hardest thing. I feel like the world isn’t fair because people don’t try hard enough to make it fair.

But WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING?! Sometimes it’s not so easy to know! You can only do what YOU feel is right so you can live with yourself. Sometimes two choices seem right. There are two futures right there, one down path A, one down path B. We have no way of knowing which one is ‘best,’ because we can’t see the future. Just choose.

(That’s a line from Levi from Attack on Titan.)

I also feel a very strong need to accomplish attainable goals I set for myself. For example, Friday morning I have to go to yoga class, or else my back will hurt all next week and my body won’t recover. I will absolutely go to that class unless my car breaks down. No matter if I’m tired or cranky or whatever, there is no way I’m not going to that class.

The trick for me is ignoring my mood and feelings. Those can change so easily. If someone I had a crush on suddenly texted me he was going, I would suddenly be motivated 400% to go. (not true, but just for example). Objectively look at facts.

If I let my mood dictate my actions, and I skip some unpleasant work out or homework or whatever, I’m letting myself down and failing myself. That’s my pride. Otherwise, how can I call myself a martial artist?

Our emotional control and will-power is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised and developed. When I first started fighting and dieting for fights, it was so hard and tortuous to control my eating if I was hungry or craving something. So, I got the idea to train my will-power. I used to walk into bakeries, look at and smell all the delicious breads and pastries, and then walk out without buying anything. Now it doesn’t bother me one bit seeing others eat a lot in front of me if I have to have a salad or whatnot.

I’m not trying to sound high and mighty. I’m trying to explain how I build a mental and emotional structure for myself to live in and live by. I want to know my weaknesses so I can strengthen them.

I guess one of my weaknesses is that I’m not very sharp to pick up on things people might imply. But it’s partially by choice. I don’t try too hard. It’s so easy to misunderstand or misread people. My mom always said, “Don’t be a mind-reader.” So I choose not to think something that somebody doesn’t tell me directly. If I think, “Maybe they feel or think this?” I entertain the possibility, but don’t believe it unless I have proof. I wonder if that’s good or not. Well, I don’t get into trouble at all, but I’m often finding stuff out that I hadn’t picked up or realized and then I think, “Man, I’m oblivious.”

One of my most recent accomplishments was banishing my emotions from training. I used to get frustrated if I couldn’t pick up or learn a move quickly. My brain got more and more worked up until it froze and I got REALLY upset. I started telling myself, “I’m a Jedi, I’m a Jedi, there are no need for emotions here.” As I step on the mat, I bow in respect, touch the post, and imagine leaving my feelings there stuck to the post until I’m done training. If I feel something welling up during training, I imagine it like a breeze, wafting away in the air.

[edit] Another thing is that if I notice a grammatical error in my writing, I MUST go edit it because I have my pride as an English teacher! Spelling is a whole different story… lol

my story of a girl, life, friends, and fighting

There once was a little girl trying to grow up.



And, like almost everyone else, she was different than everybody else. Also, like everybody else, she got teased. She only had one or two good friends most of the time through elementary school and middle school. Everyone else seemed to have so many friends and she was lonely a lot. Every time it was a starry night, she prayed to the brightest one like in Pinocchio, that she could have more friends. Hey, it worked for Geppetto.

When she hit high school, people weren’t as mean and even though she was an oddball, she fit in better. She found a group of six people who loved anime and video games. They were together always.



The girl was happier. They all were really into the internet and showed her how to blog and use social media. She became a midnight mIRC chat room fanatic.

The girl went away to college and started fighting professionally. Strangers started talking to her online more and more, almost everyone being really nice. The girl enjoyed meeting people online so much. She also met fans in person and they were really nice to her.





The more she fought, the more people wanted to chat online. Only a few times did she run into creepy or mean people. If they appeared, like on the Underground Forum, a bunch of White Knights chased them off for her.

post fight: some training, kids, anime, Herbal Papaya

I always take one week off after a fight. I usually have to. Something is swollen or hurt, I feel the intense full-body soreness the day after the fight, and I want to avoid contact with my head just because I get hit hard and want to avoid any possible concussions.

Thank GOODNESS nothing happened to my legs. I only kicked a few times. My upperbody was sore, but not injured. Two of my fingers were swollen from making contact with my opponent’s skull with a strike. My left elbow was swollen, but I had a swollen bursa sack before the fight started, so it just got worse. From me elbowing her in the head…. so yeah I definitely got the better of the fight. Oh and my zombie eye….broken blood vessel that looks scary but doesn’t hurt and will heal in a week. I’m so lucky.

Before I fight, I always call both my parents. I always take a moment to be grateful for my body that functions in the way it’s supposed to. Because you never know.

Monday, I did chores all morning and didn’t train. Then I taught kids in the evening. They missed me!

Blog about my Fusion Fight League Fight!

I had an amazing weekend.

Serena, John, and I left on Wednesday evening, changed planes in Salt Lake city, and arrived in Billings, Montana around midnight. The promoter kindly met us at the airport and a shuttle took us to the hotel. It was nice – Big Horn Resort! There was a water park and pool but we never got to use it because it opened at 4 PM and we were always busy at night.

Tuesday, we ran into a fellow fighter named Jessica “Black Widow” Borga. She offered to drive us to walmart to get supplies, since she rented a car and we didn’t. We made friends.

I’m so so so excited to fight next week!! and stuff

I am really really REALLY excited for my fight.

Every person has different reasons for competing. An MMA fighter has feelings in general about fighting, and then each fight feels a little different. For example, I compete in MMA first and foremost to test my ability and strength against my opponent, and prove that I can win. Then comes how I feel about each individual fight. I fought Sarah Kaufman in Strikeforce for the 135 lb title for that reason PLUS I wanted the belt and to prove that I was the best in the world in my weight division. Then, while I was on my 5-fight losing streak, my desire to fight changed to, “I just want to win a fight.”



My motivation for my third fight against Tara LaRosa was, “Now that I’ve changed my ENTIRE LIFE by quitting my job, leaving Japan, and training with the best coach I’ve ever met, can I still win in MMA?”



Yep, thanks to John and team Syndicate.

I try to not let myself get excited about belts or titles or rankings, although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care at all. I have belts. I have three.

As we fighters gain various experiences in life, losing, winning, injuries, trips to places, relationships with people, our motivations come and go and change. As Coach John likes to say, nobody is forcing us to do this. Nobody is holding a gun to my head saying, “You have to fight in a cage!” I could get a different job, do jiujitsu for fun, whatever. Sometimes training is painful and sucks. We cry, barf, bleed, and agonize mentally over what we couldn’t manage to do.



We also cry tears of joy, rejoice, and celebrate things we are able to do, and especially, difficult things we BECOME ABLE to do after hard work.

Just because you train hard doesn’t mean you’ll win, but if you don’t train hard, you’ll never win.



When a fighter loses a fight and writes about it on social media, many people comment, “Don’t worry, it’s a learning experience!” “You win or you learn!” “You’ll be glad in the future!” or something. Yeah, it’s true we learn from our losses, but a fighter who loses is temporarily devastated. They SHOULD be devastated. This is because they put their heart and soul into going after their dream and they failed. It’s NOT “okay” to lose, especially on the pro level. This is a very unforgiving sport. People can get cut from the UFC after one loss,right? We want money and status to get our next fight. The day after the fight, it’s not a good time to read these things. However, a fighter DOES learn from their loss. We have to make the best of it, right? So yes, a loss is a learning experience but I’m never “glad” when I lose. when I lost fights, I thought to myself, “I have so much more I can do! Why did I lose?” and then I went about trying to fix it and strengthen my weaknesses.

I told one of my kid students this the other day when he started crying because he got frustrated. I said, “It’s okay to be upset that you didn’t win. That’s good – it means you are trying really hard and you care about jiujitsu. But you have to stay calm, keep fighting, and learn how to get better the next time.”

Smile and carry on.

My loss to Porto was REALLY really rough, and I was not okay. But I became okay, trained my butt off, and got better.

When I lost my title fight loss against Jennifer Maia, it was so weird. I felt that searing fiery pain in my heart from failing to win, but also a heady joy that I landed so many techniques successfully that I’ve been working on. I was okay with the contents of the fight, just not the outcome.





John told me that I needed to do more physical conditioning and get a little stronger. I started doing gi jiujitsu again, A) because I love jiujitsu B) because the pulling and that style of fighting strengthens my upper body and legs. I also found Lorenzo who I’ve been working with once a week every week since January. He’s been pushing for more but I literally cannot add anymore physical activity to my schedule.

I did a shark tank with John and Serena yesterday and John said this is the best shape he’s ever seen me in. I’m so excited.



I could go out there and still lose. There are no guarantees. Fighters have to know that they are not invincible. But I feel so great, so ready, so prepared. I have so many techniques I want to try. My opponent seems tough but I know I can win if I fight well.

I really can’t wait. I wish it were next week already! I just wanna go and do it! My weight is good. I want sushi and nachos. x_x

If you are relatively near Billings, Montana, please go see my fight in Fusion Fight League! While you’re at it, you could always “like” their facebook page. XD

https://www.facebook.com/fflmma/

I think it might be payperviewed on the internet… more info to come soon!

I’ve gotten some sponsors for this fight. Thank you!!

Remove it Restoration



Dragon Do Fight Gear



Aardvark Painting and Rob Hamilton



Cryohelmet



Jenkins Jiu-jitsu, an academy in El Paso, TX!

My Consumer I.T. and Bill.



The Void and Katie “Bad Wolf”!

Justin Taylor

Dominate your Game

Herbal Papaya

wetdryvac.net my webmaster

I have a fight! my training, sponsors, etc

I’m so excited I have a fight coming up! I’m still under contract with Invicta but they allowed me to take this fight with Fusion Fight League. It wasn’t easy finding an opponent, but finally Priscila De Souza was finalized.

It’s in Montana and won’t be televised, so you gotta go buy tickets! Serena was also given a fight on the amateur section! That’s pretty cool a card can have both, and how often do a a pro-friend and ammy friend get to fight on the same day?

Actually I wish we weren’t because I’m super emotionally involved in her fight and I get really nervous. But I guess it can’t be helped at this point. :/ I’m trying to be positive about it.



It’s gonna be fine. John’s gonna take care of us so I won’t be nervous. She’s been trying to get a fight for a while now, too. She has improved SO Much. I can’t wait to see her fight again!

I’m going with Coach John, and I’m flying in Captain because each team gets only one cornerman paid for. Most promotions have that rule.

You might see me posting about sponsorship. I don’t know how aware the average fan is, but the sponsorship scene has changed so much over the years I’ve been fighting. Back in the day like 10 years ago when the UFC was shown once every month or every two months, the fighters got thousands of dollars for wearing brand name shorts like Sprawl, Tapout, Affliction, etc. Then the market got saturated with fighters and brands and the companies realized that they weren’t making enough money back from such advertisement to justify spending such big money. So they cut back. And got picky with which fighters. Sometimes, fighters’ money they made from sponsorship was greater than their fight purse! I’m taking like over $50,000! Then the Reebok deal happened and UFC fighters were no long allowed to wear sponsors and only got like $2,500. From $50,000 to $2,500. Crazy, huh?

So my manager stopped being able to find me any good sponsors, and I started seeing fellow fighters posting on Facebook, ‘Who wants to sponsor me? E-mail me!” I thought, well, why don’t I try it?

And I started getting sponsors! Fans who owned small companies would give me some cash to put their logo on my clothes. Fans who didn’t own a company would contribute to put their name on my shorts or banner to show support. It adds up. In my last four fights in Invicta, I can say that other than Dragon Do, Cryohelmet, and Herbal Papaya, every single one of my sponsors was a fan. Well actually, the owner of Herbal Papaya contacted me because she was a fan. I am fan sponsored! A few hundred here and there makes a thousand.

Crazy…

But I think I’m good for unique companies like Herbal Papaya and Cryohelmet because I do have a large social media following and they have unique products that are specifically good for me and the people who follow me. Everybody already has shorts. But do you have a product that can boost your immunity and help digestion like Herbal Papaya, or sooth headaches and migraines like Cryohelmet?!?

Someone suggested starting a gofundme account, but honestly, I wouldn’t do that because I’m not broke and I don’t wanna seem like I’m begging for money. No one is forcing me to fight. I do it because I love it. So I wanna do things that people will enjoy, like making my autographs accessible to buy, or putting someone’s name on my banner which will be shown on TV.