Casey O’Neill striving to be Scotland’s first UFC champion

Casey O’Neill was simply eight-years-old when her household traded the blustery seashores of North Ayrshire for a life strolling silkier sands on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Now 26, the Irvine-born kickboxer has one other brawl to deal with as her lingering Scottish accent tries to wrestle its method via in each phrase she speaks.

Her preventing craft was fashioned and honed in Thailand – and has seen her stand up UFC’s flyweight ranks the place she at the moment occupies twelfth place – however it was in Scotland the place Casey’s love for martial arts was born, initially following in her father’s footsteps.

‘When my dad went kickboxing nearby, he would just take me along because we didn’t have a babysitter,’ she mentioned.

‘I think I jumped in when I was four or five years old in the adults class, and I did that until we moved.

‘I would compete in IAKSA (International Amateur Karate-Kickboxing Sport Association) all through the UK as a kid. I actually have memories of fighting boys at six and seven years old in competitions.

‘My dad had a major influence on me – I just wanted to be like him. When he was kickboxing and starting jiu-jitsu, I was there and I’d do it, too. I went to each health club he went to.’

However, dad Cam, a former skilled kickboxer, was not so eager on his daughter taking to the cage beneath MMA guidelines. Despite working his personal exhibits when Casey was an adolescent, it was honest to say he didn’t wish to see her within the midst of the motion. She bought her method in the long run.

‘When he started his MMA promotion, I was working on the door taking the tickets because it was an underground thing, and I told him I was going to fight. He just said: “There’s no method you’re doing that”.

‘A couple of years later I had my first fight on his show, and I went on to have my whole amateur career except one fight on it,’ she laughed.

‘I also became a champion as well which was awesome, and I think he was really proud of that.’

After the preliminary success as an beginner and early skilled, O’Neill was about be thrown a major problem when seeking to break via as a severe skilled within the MMA scene.

Neither her dad, nor any members of her household, have been capable of assist her when the Covid pandemic struck, starting what she recollects was the ‘crazy’ chain of occasions that noticed her land a UFC contract.

‘I was in Thailand during Covid times and it started getting pretty serious after the first couple of months when every country started closing their borders,’ she mentioned.

‘My parents were in Australia where the borders were closed and the rest of my family were in the UK and they weren’t letting many individuals in or on the market.

‘I was stuck in Thailand. No fights, no money and I was already broke to begin with. I was there trying to make it as a fighter and luckily I was offered a fight in Abu Dhabi, which was one of the only places still doing them at the time.

‘It wasn’t on the UFC, it was with a regional present referred to as UAE Warriors, in order that they gave me a chance. I believed to myself: “I could really do with the money”. The solely downside is that I’d have completely no concept the place I’d find yourself after the struggle and I knew I couldn’t afford to remain within the UAE as a result of it’s so costly there.

‘I took the fight and my manager said to me that if I won they could take me to Las Vegas. There was a possibility I could get a short notice call on one of the UFC cards because people we’re dropping out with Covid on a regular basis.

‘I wasn’t even eager about what would occur if I misplaced the Abu Dhabi struggle, but when I had I’d have been screwed.

‘I took the risk, I went out there and fought, got the finish and went to Vegas. I couch-surfed in an Airbnb which actually belonged to someone I’d met in Thailand and had solely recognized for per week.

‘I had made money from the UAE fight and I was essentially hoping to get signed with $3000 in my bank.

‘About two weeks later, I got the call to fight Lauren Murphy on Fight Island with the UFC. I was supposed to leave a couple days after the call and unfortunately I got Covid which meant I couldn’t journey. But, fortunately, Mick Maynard appreciated me and stored me round.’

What O’Neill might attribute to luck, others might understand as onerous work which has seen her achieve world recognition.

While her life has definitely modified from her humble beginnings in North Ayrshire, the O’Neill household – who principally nonetheless dwell in Scotland other than her mother and father and sister – nonetheless cheer Casey on.

Using Loch Lomond by Runrig as a walkout track is only one method wherein she pays homage to her birthplace, and she or he believes it’s ‘so important’ that she represents Scotland on the worldwide stage.

‘The Australian flag has been put on my gear and name every single time I fight, but I was born in Scotland and both of my parents are 100 per cent Scottish.

‘I do try to represent both (Australia and Scotland) because they are equally home places for me, so I always wear the blue when I fight and take a picture with the flag afterwards.

‘Being one of two Scottish girls in the UFC, it’s actually necessary to fly that flag till we get extra becoming a member of us’.

O’Neill faces Brazilian Ariane Lipski this weekend at UFC 296 in Las Vegas – her first struggle after struggling a primary skilled defeat by the hands of Jennifer Maia in March.

Her document now stands at 9-1-0, and O’Neill believes {that a} victory over Lipski would put her heading in the right direction to reaching the last word aim within the UFC.

‘I just want to be UFC champion,’ she mentioned.

‘It’s all the pieces I’ve ever wished and I really feel like folks will say: “Yeah, however it’s so onerous to get there’, however everybody informed me I wouldn’t get so far, so I feel you’ve bought to simply be delusional as a fighter.

‘I truly believe that I’m three fights away from a title shot. I simply have to get on the market at my 100 per cent finest and I’m the perfect on this planet. I can’t wait to show that to everyone one step at a time.

‘I’m not trying previous Ariane Lipski, I have to beat her emphatically and I’ll. Then I’ll struggle somebody within the prime 5, perhaps get a primary occasion, then go get the belt and turn into the primary Scottish champion within the UFC’.

Casey O’Neill takes on Ariane Lipski on December 16 dwell on TNT Sports Box Office at UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington.