{"id":564652,"date":"2026-03-26T02:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/564652\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:18:07","slug":"where-has-ufc-seattles-casey-oneill-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/564652\/","title":{"rendered":"Where has UFC Seattle\u2019s Casey O\u2019Neill been?"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 12-ranked<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight Casey O\u2019Neill returns to action this weekend (Sat., March 28, 2026) against Brazil\u2019s Gabriella Fernandes at UFC Seattle<\/a> inside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time coming.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill hasn\u2019t competed since UFC 305<\/a> in Australia, where she handed surging prospect Luana Santos her first UFC loss via unanimous decision.<\/p>\n

And then, poof! \u201cKing\u201d Casey vanished.<\/p>\n

The answer is simple \u2014 injuries.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill has been dealing with injuries for the past few years, and another knee injury forced her to sit out all of 2025. It\u2019s been a frustrating stretch for a fighter who once looked like one of the brightest rising prospects<\/a> in the division.<\/p>\n

But the time away wasn\u2019t wasted.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old returned to Thailand \u2014 where she began her UFC journey \u2014 to reconnect with her roots and rebuild her game with her original team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had a great time in Thailand, and that\u2019s where I started my UFC journey,\u201d O\u2019Neill told UFC.com<\/a>. \u201cIt was nice to go back, get back to my roots, and work with my original team again. Great vibes, great weather, great training.\u201d<\/p>\n

More importantly, the layoff helped her reset mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to stop trying to force everything to be perfect,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cIt helped me mature in the sport. When things go wrong, you need to take a step back and look at it. Being more patient with my career and stuff like that. I know what I\u2019m capable of, and I\u2019m just trying to get myself in the best health that I can to be able to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, after nearly two years away, she understands what\u2019s at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cMMA is a very fast-moving sport,\u201d O\u2019Neill concluded. \u201cPeople might look at the card and not even know who I am. So it\u2019s exciting to be back in that position where you can steal the spotlight and remind people.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 19 months on the sidelines, O\u2019Neill finally gets that chance.<\/p>\n

To checkout the latest and greatest UFC Seattle: \u201cAdesanya vs. Pyfer\u201d news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 12-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight Casey O\u2019Neill returns to action this weekend (Sat., March 28, 2026)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,14855],"class_list":["post-564652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}