Casey O’Neill made a triumphant return to the octagon at UFC Fight Night 271 in Seattle, securing a first-round knockout victory over Gabriella Fernandes. The win marked the end of a frustrating career slump for the once-highly touted flyweight contender, who had been sidelined for nearly 600 days due to a series of devastating injuries. While her physical struggles include the rehabilitation she endured, O’Neill credited her mental reset to Winter Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu.
The Scottish-born fighter revealed that the figure skating icon’s approach to competition inspired her successful comeback.
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The Alysa Liu Connection
O’Neill’s mindset shift began while watching coverage of U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu, who returned from retirement to capture gold in women’s singles at the 2026 Winter Olympics (via Full Send MMA):
The UFC fighter stated, “All I wanted to do was come back and fight. I kept thinking about the figure skater, and all I was saying in the tunnel was fun-maxxing.”
Liu, who retired from figure skating at the young age of 16, returned to the sport two years after retiring and went on to win two gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, becoming the first American woman to win an individual medal since Sasha Cohen in 2006.
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The figure skater credits her success to her personal philosophy regarding competition, centered on finding joy in the performance rather than obsessing over results.
“Winning and losing don’t affect me anymore,” she explained in an interview for Team USA. “I feel pretty indifferent about placements. Medaling doesn’t fulfill me. I skate because I like to skate.”
O’Neill found the approach deeply resonant after years of injury-related frustration. She adopted Liu’s philosophy of “fun-maxxing,” a relatively new term used to describe chasing performance through enjoyment and play rather than pure grind.
It turns out that this mental approach worked for the 28-year-old fighter, who had an impressive knockout performance against Gabriella Fernandes at Climate Pledge Arena. She wasted no time making up for the lost years, finishing the fight via knockout at 3:11 of the very first round (via UFC on Paramount):
A Career Stalled by Injuries
O’Neill entered the UFC with significant hype, starting her promotional run with a 4-0 record that included a split-decision victory over Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 271.
However, her momentum was derailed after she tore her ACL in early 2022, forcing her out of a scheduled fight. Following additional setbacks and surgery, she remained inactive for the entire 2025 calendar year.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani, she explained how the mental battle almost made her quit MMA entirely:
https://www.youtube.com/live/GxqU9ROu_ik?si=QNZHpXyJhHHaobri
”I don’t want to be like ‘woe is me,’ but I actually did have a pretty hard year and a half, a tough injury to come back from, and there were a couple of moments mentally where I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to return."
The emphatic victory pushed her UFC record to 6-2 and immediately reinserted her into the flyweight conversation.
The transformation in O’Neill’s mentality marks a significant departure from her earlier persona. Following her 2022 win over Modafferi, she memorably flipped off the Houston crowd after they booed her, shouting, “If you want me to be the fing bad guy, then fk you, I’ll be the f**ing bad guy.”
By contrast, her return in Seattle was fueled by internal satisfaction rather than external validation. Her focus was on simply enjoying the experience of competing again after a lengthy layoff.
With her first-round knockout victory, O’Neill has positioned herself for a potential rankings climb in the women’s flyweight division. The performance was a reminder of the finishing ability that made her one of the UFC’s most promising prospects before injuries derailed her trajectory.
Due in part to Liu’s advocacy for athlete mental health, O’Neill will carry on her career without solely focusing on the wins and losses, but by the joy she rediscovers in the process.
