Most athletes work to a point where for one moment, all their dreams and hard work are realised. Australia's latest UFC debutant Casey O'Neill had it twice in less than a day.
"That whole 24 hours where I first got my contract could be a movie, honestly," she told Wide World of Sports.
"I was training in the gym, helping a friend train for her fight, then another friend walked in with a phone and said I had to call my manager immediately."
It was the call she'd been dreaming of for her entire professional career - with instructions to get to the UFC's Fight Island in the middle east as soon as possible for UFC 254, replacing her teammate Cynthia Calvillo, who had tested positive for COVID-19.
She was immediately on the phone to her friends and family to tell them the good news - but no sooner had she finished dialling them all, she had to do it all over again.
"Then I got a call back and I find out I've got COVID as well and I'm not going anywhere, and I don't have a UFC contract," she added.
"I went from thinking 'oh my God I'm fighting on the weekend' to 'I have to lock myself in a room for two weeks because I've got COVID'"
But the roller coaster of emotions wasn't over yet - with a third phone call and a third round of subsequent chats to loved ones to come.
"Half an hour after I got done telling them all I wasn't in the UFC, I got another calling saying they were going to sign me anyway!"
Fighting has always been in O'Neill's life, her father first taking her to kickboxing classes at the age of four – but she didn't really take it seriously until the family moved from Scotland to Queensland, where she began jiu jitsu as a teenager.
But it was only after seeing the first season of The Ultimate Fighter to feature women that she believed it could be her in the octagon one day.
"That was a pivotal thing," she said.
"I thought 'Oh my god, this is actually a career path for females'. I intently watched that season and that was the time I realised that I could this," O'Neill explains.
"It's been really cool to see the evolution of female fighting. When I started watching fights with my dad it was all men, and I remember Dana saying 'females will never be in the UFC'."
While still in COVID lockdown, her UFC fight was confirmed, and now on Sunday she will debut in Las Vegas at UFC Fight Night 185 against American Shana Dobson.
"I've watched the majority of her fights, I know quite a bit about her – I think my style matches up great. She's a very predominant hand-fighter, she's a boxer, she's aggressive," O'Neill said.
It will be a bittersweet debut, at the UFC's Apex facility, rather than at the T-Mobile Arena or one of the casino arenas on the strip.
"It actually works out better in my favour for my debut, without that extra added pressure of the crowd. It's a trade-off in a way, but there's pros and cons for both," she said.
"The crowd brings a really good energy and it's lots of fun, but at the same time it's nice to be able to hear your own corner and not feel pressure from outside sources.
"I've always tried to give the best account of myself, and come out aggressive and try and finish the fight. And even if it goes the distance I try to be fast-paced and aggressive."
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/news/casey-oneills-movielike-ufc-journey/47c12cd6-d250-45d2-b71b-f5a64806386e
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