‘Men should mind their business’: Aussie UFC fighter‘s perfect response to trolls

Casey O’Neill returns to action this weekend and she’s determined to overcome injury and trolls to become Australia’s next UFC champion.

Casey O'Neill could be Australia's next UFC champ.

Casey O’Neill speaks with a thick Scottish accent but she could well be Australia’s next UFC champion.

The undefeated flyweight makes her return to the octagon on Sunday (AEDT) at UFC 286 in London against Jennifer Maia on the undercard of Leon Edwards’ blockbuster against Kamaru Usman.

O’Neill won her first four UFC fights before suffering an ACL injury and is now on a mission to make up for lost time and resume her rapid rise up the rankings.

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When O’Neill says she’s “lived all over the place”, she means it. Born in Scotland, she moved to Australia aged 10, and now calls Las Vegas home.

Asked if she considers herself Australian or Scottish, O’Neill told news.com.au: “Definitely a bit of both. I was born in Scotland, I grew up here until I was 10 years old then we moved to Australia.

“I spent a lot of time in Australia, learned a lot of things there and started my fighting journey. Both places are super special to my heart.

“This is the first time I’m fighting on UK soil so that’s pretty cool for me, being from Scotland and having a lot of family who’ve never seen me fight live being able to come is super cool and motivating. I’m excited to hear them.”

Casey O'Neill could be Australia's next UFC champ. Photo: UFC.

Can Australia claim O’Neill as one of our own?

“Yes Australia can claim me,” she said with a grin.

“I’m a ‘Scossie’ as I say — Scottish-Australian.”

O’Neill’s father Cam runs the Eternal MMA promotion, which has produced several rising Australian UFC stars including Jack Della Maddalena, Jack Jenkins and Shannon Ross.

“I’m grateful for my dad for opening those doors in Australia and I’m sure a lot of other people are,” O’Neill said.

“He started that when I was 13 years old. I always told him I wanted to fight for him. I ended up doing most of my amateur and my early pro career with Eternal MMA, which is his show.

“It’s a great feeder process for the UFC. A lot of people who have been champions for Eternal end up doing really well in the UFC, like Jack Della, Jack Jenkins, myself, Shannon Ross.

“It’s a super cool place to start your career.”

Della Maddalena has made a lightning start to his career and he and O’Neill loom as the fighters most capable of becoming Australia’s next UFC champion.

“I think it’s coming soon,” O’Neill said of her dream of winning a UFC title.

“I was on a fast track before I got injured. I had four fights in the UFC, won all four and got ranked pretty quickly and they were moving me up the ranks.

“Obviously that’s slowed a little bit but they’ve thrown me to No. 8 (Maia) straight away.

“That proves they still believe in me and I still believe in me.

“The first step is Jennifer Maia on Saturday night and then after that someone in the top five and then maybe a title eliminator at the end of the year would be amazing. I expect to fight for that belt soon.”

Casey O’Neill is on a mission to climb the flyweight rankings. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Female combat fighters still cop vile abuse on social media, and one troll called O’Neill a low level fighter last year and claimed he could beat her.

O’Neill wasn’t having any of it and challenged him to a fight at a gym, but surprise surprise, he wouldn’t accept the offer.

“Just being a female fighter in general — a lot of guys don’t think we shouldn’t be doing this,” O’Neill reflected.

“Usually I let it slide — I think that guy just caught me on a bad day and I ended up offering him to come down and fight, which I would have been more than willing to do but obviously he didn’t want to in the end.

“I like that it actually ended up shining a spotlight on it because a lot of females do go through things like that, or other things which are a little bit demeaning.

“When you’re sort of an outspoken person or polarising in a sense, you get more hate than most people would.

“Men should just mind their business when it comes to women fighting. I feel like we’ve proved ourselves, that’s all that it is.”

O’Neill has the perfect response for trolls. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

O’Neill calls women’s flyweight “the most exciting division in MMA at the moment”.

It could open up after Alexa Grasso ended Valentina Shevchenko’s lengthy reign as flyweight champion at UFC 285.

“Obviously Valentina was champion for so long but as the division grows the girls get better because we have to rise to that level in order to be taken seriously and have a chance,” O’Neill said.

“I think Alexa winning the belt proved how far we’ve come as the women’s flyweight division.

“I’m just excited I get to face someone in the top 10. I thought that would be a cool accolade if I could beat somone who fought for the belt, that was the next step that I had to accomplish.

“Jennifer Maia’s fought for the belt. She’s had a good first round with Valentina, she’s done a lot of things and been around the flyweight divison for a long time. She’s a pioneer.

“I’m excited to go in there and fight another girl who’s been there and done it and show that I’m better.”