Jennifer Maia and Casey O’Neill fought on the main card at UFC 286. It was a back-and-forth affair that saw Maia come out victorious. In her post-fight media appearance, Maia came out with an accusation against O’Neill for greasing before their fight. She was talking about wanting to show her grappling skills to the fight fans but was unable to get O’Neill to the ground.
Maia said, “I really wanted to show you guys my ground game, but Casey was very greased up very oily, very slippery, and that really threw me off. Listen, I don’t want it to just call shots like this. Maybe skin moisturiser, but definitely, it was not just sweat.” Maia talked in Portuguese, and another person translated this.
This is a grave accusation coming from Jennifer Maia against Casey O’Neill. Maia failed with her all her takedown attempts in the fight. She was 0 for 4 takedown attempts. Therefore, she abandoned all her wrestling attempts to focus on striking, leading her to victory.
"It was not just sweat": Jennifer Maia accuses Casey O'Neill of being "greased up" during their #UFC286 fight.
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) March 19, 2023
Full interview: https://t.co/HIViuoit9l pic.twitter.com/FpWGAta7kt
Maia won the contest unanimously, 30–27, 29–28, 29–28 on the scorecard. With the victory, Maia is now on a two-fight winning streak. Earlier in 2020, she challenged Valentina Shevchenko for the Flyweight Championship. She will now focus on challenging for the title again.
Related: “Absolute Warriors” Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev’s UFC 286 violence fest leaves Twitter abuzz
Casey O’Neill responds to accusations from Jennifer Maia
Casey O’Neill lost a decision to Jennifer Maia at UFC 286. However, Maia told the media after the fight that O’Neill appeared slippery and not sweaty. Maia thinks some skin moisturiser helped O’Neill to stuff all of her takedown attempts.
O’Neill responded on Twitter, saying, “She did outbox me for sure, I was as off. But my wrestling defence was better than her takedowns, I worked so hard on it… to say I’m greased is bullshit.“
She did outbox me for sure, I was as off. But my wrestling defense was better than her takedowns, I worked so hard on it… to say I’m greased is bullshit
— Casey Oneill (@kingcaseymma) March 19, 2023
Before fighting Maia, O’Neill was undefeated. Now she has to regroup and improve on the deficiency that made her lose the fight. However, she is still young and has plenty of time to improve.
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