Fighter to Watch at UFC 271: Casey O'Neill

Last year's Rookie of the Year in the UFC aims to pick up where she left off by collecting the next "biggest win of her career" on Saturday night

Name: Casey O’Neill
Nickname: King
Record: 8-0 overall, 3-0 UFC
Division: Flyweight
Team: Xtreme Couture
Opponent: Roxanne Modafferi (28-21 overall, 7-9 UFC)

If you’re not excited about O’Neill’s upside in the flyweight division, you haven’t been paying attention.

Last year, the Scottish-Australian fighter went 3-0 inside the Octagon, posting stoppage wins over Shana Dobson, Lara Procopio, and Antonina Shevchenko to earn “Rookie of the Year” honours from just about every outlet in the business, and rightfully so. The run of success vaulted her into the rankings (she’s currently stationed at No. 15) and put her at the vanguard of a pack of young hopefuls with promising futures competing in the 125-pound weight class.

Saturday night in Houston, O’Neill makes her first start of her sophomore season, taking on pioneer Roxanne Modafferi in what will be the final fight of her 19-year, 50-fight career. While that might seem like a setup for a victory for O’Neill, it’s far from guaranteed, as Modafferi has halted the ascent of a promising, young talent or two in her day, including out-hustling Maycee Barber in a comparable pairing just two years ago.

The thing that makes O’Neill such a compelling fighter to watch is that she is relentless, resilient, and shows an outstanding nose for the finish, which are three traits that you don’t always see from competitors with such limited experience. In just eight fights, the 24-year-old has figured out who she is as a fighter, how to best deploy her skills inside the Octagon, and when to crank up the intensity and push for a finish. You can see it in each of her three efforts thus far, which all played out differently, but ended the same way: with O’Neill standing victorious in the center of the cage.

In her debut, she waded into the fire, felt Dobson’s power, and determined her best course of attack was to put her on the deck and work from top position. After securing three takedowns and controlling the second half of the opening stanza on the canvas, O’Neill was right back in on a takedown to start the second, taking the back, transitioning to mount, and then beating the holy hell out of Dobson to secure the finish.

Four months later against Procopio, she weathered the early storm from the Brazilian, navigating a rocky opening round before Procopio faded sharply in the second, giving O’Neill the opportunity to draw level and claim all the momentum. As soon as the third round began, O’Neill got the fight to the floor, locked Procopio up in a unique crucifix position and rained down blows before attacking a rear-naked choke and putting the powerful Brazilian to sleep.

Against Shevchenko in October, she again worked her way through a tough opening two minutes before controlling the second half of the frame with her grappling and attacks from top position before replicating that effort in the second. She was okay with taking shots from Shevchenko at range if it meant she could back her up into the fence, and once she put her on the canvas, O’Neill quickly started working transitions and attacks, eventually climbing into mount and collecting the stoppage just prior to the close of the second round.

Being relentless and resilient are two things that, for the most part, can’t be taught — they’re either inside of you or they’re not. O’Neill has plenty of both and it allows her to fight at a pace that most can’t handle for more than a round or two, while also making up for some of the shortfalls in her striking game. Right now, everything is geared towards closing the distance, getting inside, and dragging the fight to the canvas, but over time, as she continues to sharpen her striking skills, her offensive approach with expand and those already strong areas will become even more difficult to contend with because she’ll be more of a threat in space.

But here’s the thing: even if her striking doesn’t progress that much further than where it is now, O’Neill already knows how to work with what she has in order to get into her grappling attacks, and that might be enough to carry her into contention.

It’s really incredible to watch a young fighter that knows exactly who they are compete, because there is a different confidence in their movements compared to their contemporaries that are still trying to figure out what approach works best for them.

O’Neill had an outstanding first year in the UFC and there is no reason to believe she won’t continue to scale the rankings and make waves in the flyweight division in her second year, beginning this weekend in Houston.