Casey O'Neill Pulls Off Sick Armbar at UFC 331 Moments After Her Knee Gave Out
O'Neill felt her knee buckle in the first round, then calmly flipped Eduarda Moura and locked in one of the nastiest armbars you will ever see.
Casey O'Neill delivered one of the most dramatic finishes of the night at UFC 331 on Saturday, submitting Eduarda Moura with a first-round armbar at 3:20 inside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. What made it remarkable was what happened moments before the finish: O'Neill's left knee gave out.
"I threw a kick and my left knee gave out," O'Neill told Sherdog after the fight. She was not sure whether it was a cramp or something structural, but she felt her toes cramping when she tried to use the leg defensively. For a fighter who missed nearly two years with a serious right knee injury, it was a nightmare scenario unfolding in real time.
Moura sensed the opening immediately. She caught one of O'Neill's kicks and executed a takedown, then worked from top position with damaging strikes and a brabo choke attempt. O'Neill appeared to be in trouble, pinned underneath with a compromised leg.
But O'Neill stayed composed. "I bided my time, didn't feel like I was in too much trouble at all," she said. "And pulled something off." That something was flipping Moura with her legs and locking in a textbook armbar that forced the tap.
The win gives O'Neill back-to-back first-round finishes since returning from her extended layoff in March 2026. Moura, who holds a 3-3 UFC record, has now dropped two straight. Whether O'Neill's knee holds up for what comes next is the question nobody in the flyweight division wants to answer right now.
Casey O'Neill's knee gives out mid-kick, she gets taken down, she is under a grappler who is landing and hunting a brabo choke, and she flips her with her legs into a textbook armbar. That is a finish you would not believe in a movie. After missing nearly two years with the other knee, the composure alone is the story.
The part I keep coming back to is her saying she never felt like she was in too much trouble. That is either a fighter's honest read of a bad position or the best poker face in the division. Either way, it worked.
Now the worry. She does not know if it was a cramp or something structural, and a fighter who already lost two years to one knee cannot afford to guess about the other. Back-to-back first-round finishes since March is a real run. Get the leg checked before anyone books the next one. The flyweight division can wait a month. Another two-year layoff would be a tragedy.
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