A UFC veteran will defend her spot in the top 15 rankings against an up-and-comer early next year.
Meni Mayer of MMA Ideas was the first to report that No. 11 ranked flyweight Roxanne Modafferi will fight No. 15 ranked Casey O’Neill on February 12 at UFC 271. A source close to the situation subsequently confirmed the fight to Cageside Press.
O’Neil teased the fight announcement on Twitter last week.
Got a really exciting announcement coming soon ! I’ll be back in the cage early 2022🥳
— Casey Oneill (@kingcaseymma) October 29, 2021
In February, Modafferi (25-19) will be defending her No. 11 ranking against a hungry UFC newcomer. The women’s MMA pioneer is riding a two-fight losing streak, her first losing streak since 2013. Modafferi was most recently in action against Talia Santos at UFC 266 in September. She lost a unanimous decision. Before that, she was defeated by Viviane Araújo at UFC on ESPN: Chiesa vs. Magny to kick off her 2021.
O’Neil (8-0) had an excellent UFC rookie year. She finished Shana Dobson via TKO in her UFC debut, and then she submitted Lara Procópio four months later. In her most recent win, she finished Antonina Shevchenko via TKO and received a Performance of the Night bonus for her efforts. O’Neil earned a spot in the flyweight top 15 after her win over Shevchenko.
No location, venue, or broadcast plan has been officially announced for the February 12 UFC pay-per-view. However, the highly anticipated middleweight championship rematch between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker is rumored to headline the event.
UFC 271 currently looks like this:
- Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Sergey Morozov
- AJ Dobson vs. Jacob Malkoun
- Kyler Phillips vs. Marcelo Rojo
- Renato Moicano vs. Alexander Hernandez
- Casey O’Neill vs. Roxanne Modafferi
