Jennifer Maia Expected to Face Casey O’Neill at UFC 286 in London

A place among the top 10 at flyweight is on the line at the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return trip to London.

Courtesy of an initial report from MMA Island on Tuesday, 125-pound contenders Jennifer Maia (20-9-1) and Casey O'Neill (9-0) will square off at UFC 286 on March 18. The two flyweights are expected to battle it out inside of the O2 Arena in London, although the contracts have not yet been formalized. Maia has since confirmed this pairing in a comment on Instagram, and other outlets have also done so as well.

Maia ended her first two-fight skid in November, where she claimed a hard-fought decision over Maryna Moroz. That victory put an end to a rough patch in 2022 where she dropped unanimous verdicts to Katlyn Chookagian and Manon Fiorot. Since making her UFC debut in 2018, the former Invicta Fighting Championships flyweight queen has gone the distance in nine of her 10 outings. The lone stoppage came via armbar over Joanne Wood in 2020.

Unbeaten in her young professional career, O’Neill surges into this bout on the heels of a four-fight win streak inside of the Octagon. In 2021, the Aussie roared out of the gate by battering Shana Dobson, putting Lara Procopio to sleep with a rear-naked choke and clobbering Antonina Shevchenko in the span of less than eight months. Her 2022 campaign slowed after a split decision win over Roxanne Modafferi that February, as a torn ACL kept her out of action and bumped her from a possible matchup against Jessica Eye at UFC 276.

UFC 286 goes down at the O2 Arena in London on March 18, and there is no current headliner on the books. A rumored championship rubber match between welterweight kingpin Leon Edwards and ex-champ Kamaru Usman has been discussed for that show, but Usman may be still recovering from a hand injury. The current highest-billed bout on the card comes in the middleweight division, as former title challenger Marvin Vettori tries to stave off the fast-rising Georgian Roman Dolidze. A 185-pound match pitting Gerald Meerschaert and Abusupiyan Magomedov recently fell through due to visa issues for the latter, although Meerschaert expects to remain on its lineup.