Casey O’Neill Submits Eduarda Moura, Calls Out Maycee Barber
Casey O’Neill turned a first-round scramble into an armbar and then pointed straight at Maycee Barber.
The Scottish-Australian flyweight finished Eduarda Moura at 3:22 of Round 1 on Saturday at UFC 331 inside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Moura started better. She knocked O’Neill off balance, took top position, and locked an anaconda choke that looked close to ending the night early.
O’Neill slipped the squeeze, elevated Moura with her hips, and rolled into a belly-down armbar in one motion. Moura tapped as soon as the hold tightened.
Joe Rogan called it one of the slickest armbars he had seen in the Octagon. O’Neill used the microphone for the fight she said she has been chasing.
“Thank you, but hey, I have one thing to say,” she said. “I was out for a long time, from 2024 to 2026.”
She did not linger on the layoff.
“I’m back,” O’Neill said. “I’m making everybody know that this is my moment, so that the fight I’ve been chasing for a really long time, I think it’s time I climb the ranks. Macy Barber, the future’s now, let’s go!”
The spelling on the jumbotron is Maycee. The target was not hard to miss.
O’Neill entered 11-2 and left 12-2. It was her third straight win and her second finish in a row after a first-round knockout of Gabriella Fernandes on March 28 in Seattle.
That Seattle date ended a stretch that began after a unanimous decision over Luana Santos at UFC 305 in August 2024. She told the arena the gap from 2024 to 2026 was long enough.
Moura fell to 12-3. The Brazilian had dropped a decision to Wang Cong in February after beating former title challenger Lauren Murphy last July.
She had the grappling to win Saturday and nearly did. The anaconda was real. The reversal was faster.
O’Neill was ranked No. 12 in women’s flyweight coming in. Moura was No. 13. A first-round submission in that matchup is the kind of result that usually moves a name up the list.
Barber sits higher. The Colorado flyweight is 15-3 and was ranked No. 6 after a first-round knockout loss to Alexa Grasso on the same March card where O’Neill returned.
Valentina Shevchenko still holds the title. Natalia Silva, Grasso, Manon Fiorot, and Erin Blanchfield sit above Barber on the latest official list.
O’Neill is not asking for the champion yet. She is asking for the ranked name she has wanted while she sat out and rebuilt.
The UFC has not booked Barber vs. O’Neill. Nothing in the Octagon interview changed that on paper.
What it did change is the argument for the matchup. O’Neill escaped a choke, launched a ranked grappler, and finished the fight before the fourth minute.
She said the future is now. The next step is whether the promotion gives her Barber or another name in that same tier.