Casey O’Neill says a late-night rabbit gap of figure-skating clips, and one run from Olympic champion Alysa Liu, gave her the mindset that carried her again into the UFC after a 12 months and a half on the shelf. Within the backstage tunnel earlier than her return struggle, she stored repeating one phrase to herself: “fun-maxxing.”
Casey O’Neill Comeback within the UFC
Casey O’Neill tore her ACL in early 2022, which compelled her out of a scheduled struggle with Jessica Eye at UFC 276 and sidelined her for an prolonged interval. The Scottish-born flyweight, primarily based in Las Vegas, had began her UFC run at 4-0, together with a split-decision win over Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 271, earlier than accidents stalled that rise. After extra setbacks and knee surgical procedure, she went via a full 12 months of rehabilitation and was inactive for your entire 2025 calendar 12 months, solely reserving her comeback towards Gabriella Fernandes in early 2026.
O’Neill returned on March 28, 2026, towards Gabriella Fernandes at a UFC occasion in Seattle, her first look since August 2024. She fought with urgency, scoring a first-round knockout that instantly put her again within the flyweight dialog and marked a key emotional milestone after repeated harm points. In post-fight feedback, she defined that in the course of the stroll to the cage she was not targeted on concern or rankings however on one inside instruction: get pleasure from herself and “fun-maxx” the second.
Alysa Liu and fun-maxxing
Alysa Liu, a U.S. determine skater, had already lived a full aggressive arc: early retirement at 16 after the 2022 Winter Video games, then a return to win gold in ladies’s singles and the crew occasion on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. Her comeback and relaxed public angle sparked new dialogue round competing for pleasure reasonably than stress, with creators and analysts utilizing her for example of “fun-maxxing,” chasing efficiency via play as an alternative of grind.
Liu’s Olympic success and the framing of her skating as efficiency pushed by enjoyment resonated with athletes in different sports activities, together with O’Neill, who picked up on that language throughout her personal restoration. Alysa Liu has been very clear that her gold in Milan-Cortina got here from skating with pleasure, not chasing a end result, and that she would have been at peace even with out the medal due to what the comeback meant.
In a single breakdown of her mindset, she is quoted saying: “Win and shedding [don’t] have an effect on me anymore… medals don’t fulfill me. I skate as a result of I wish to skate.” She provides, “I’m proud of any consequence, so long as I’m there. I’m current. There’s nothing to lose.”
Within the lead-up to Seattle, O’Neill adopted Liu’s story and began to reframe her comeback: after months of rehab and doubt, the precedence turned experiencing the stroll, the gang, and the exchanges within the cage reasonably than obsessing over outcomes. She described repeating “fun-maxxing” to herself within the tunnel as a technique to strip away concern and expectations, crediting that Liu-inspired mantra with serving to her struggle unfastened on her first night time again.
For O’Neill, the connection is straightforward: a determine skater who got here again for the love of competitors gave a UFC flyweight permission to do the identical, turning an extended harm layoff right into a story about returning to the game on her personal phrases.
