LONDON – Jennifer Maia left UFC 286 with her hand raised, but there’s still something that’s not sitting right with her.
The former UFC women’s flyweight title challenger claimed her opponent, Casey O’Neill, was greased up entering their main card about at The O2 in London on Saturday. In the end, Maia (21-9-1 MMA, 6-5 UFC) won a unanimous decision using her striking, but she thinks the fight would’ve looked much different if not for what she alleged was greasing by O’Neill (9-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC).
“I’m happy with my performance, but I have so much more to show,” Maia told reporters in her UFC 286 post-fight news conference. “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.”
When asked to clarify her comments, Maia said she thinks it was more than sweat that made O’Neill hard to grapple.
“Listen, I don’t want to take shots like this – it can be skin moisturizer – but definitely I know it was not just sweat.”
The Brazilian said she noticed something was up in the first grappling exchange of the fight, and that’s why the grappling specialist resorted to a striking approach for the remainder of the fight.
“The first time we locked bodies (I noticed) – as soon as we locked bodies against the cage,” Maia said. “I have a very strong game against the cage, and I felt it extremely difficult to get a hold of her and keep a hold of her because she was so slippery. So I had to abandon that and go to boxing.”
Regardless, Maia left London victorious and now finds herself on a two-fight winning streak. She thinks a third victory could set her up for a championship bout.
“My goal is to eventually fight for the title again – maybe one more fight and then I’ll be ready to fight for the title,” Maia said.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 286.
