Nov. 8 rematch between Tara LaRosa and Roxanne Modaferri cancelled
October 15, 2008 by Sam Caplan
A rematch between former BodogFIGHT women’s champion Tara LaRosa and Roxanne Modaferri that had been scheduled to take place on Nov. 8 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago under the Ironheart Crown promotional banner has been cancelled.
The news was first revealed in a report by Sherdog.com’s Jordan Breen.
Both LaRosa and Modaferri are contracted to the upstart American Fight League promotion and were loaned to Ironheart Crown after the AFL was forced to postpone a planned pay-per-view for a third time after failing to secure funding for the event.
According to the Sherdog report, it appears the AFL’s financial issues served as the culprit behind the decision to pull three of its contracted fighters, LaRosa, Modaferri, and featherweight Raphael Assuncao from the Ironheart show.
The news will come as a major setback to both LaRosa and Modafferi, who despite being considered as top ten pound-for-pound female fighters, have been subjected to recent prolonged hiatuses from competition.
LaRosa, 15-1, last fought on November 24 of last year in Indiana during a HOOKnSHOOT show that saw her submit Cody Welchin in the second round of a bout contested at 125 pounds.
Modaferri, who currently resides in Japan, has not fought since an April victory for the Fatal Femmes Fighting promotion in California in which she recorded a third round TKO over Vanessa Porto.
The previous LaRosa vs. Modaferri matchup took place in March of 2006 in Atlantic City, N.J. during MFC’s “Boardwalk Blitz.” LaRosa won the bout in a unanimous decision in what many critics considered at the time to be the best fight on the show.
How’s that million dollar contract look now? Kinda sucks to have an agreement to get paid a stupid amount of money per fight, yet you can’t get a fight done.
If they can’t afford the arena they sure as hell wouldn’t be able to afford LaRosa and her crazy contract.
Right on, CASH.
Same with Bobby Lashley. He’s Sengoku bound 4-sure.
It’s a shame that EliteXc is about the only place to have regular fights for top level women
EliteXC Womens FTW!
Seriously, if I were Tara or Roxy, I would just sign with EliteXC.
The problem with signing with EliteXC is that they will want both girls to move up to 140-145 lbs. to fight Gina.
Personally, I am shocked that an organization that signed a six figure contract with a female fighter that 5% of MMA fans have actually heard of is, and has very little potential to bring in money to the promotion is having financial trouble.
Definitely didn’t see this one coming…..
Roxy is awesome I hope she gets to fight Tara soon.
How in the f*ck can Ironheart Crown screw up being “loaned” one of the biggest female MMA fights of all time to have on their otherwise shitty card…Wow…
I was going to see this show but not now, also for you who are bashing Larosa’s and Lashley contracts the AFL is who signed them to those contracts, why would they as fighters turn them down for an absurd amount of money it’s up to the AFL to work out the arena,ppv, and tv deals which the AFL apparently can’t i don’t know if they ever will have an event, but aside from that they were not putting on this show.Which was turning out to be decent.Larosa and Lashley would be great additions for EliteXC,also for Manx, Ironheart had nothing to do with the Larosa fight being pulled that was the AFL.