O'Neill's knee gave out mid-fight, yet she still submitted Moura at UFC 331

Casey O’Neill submitted Eduarda Moura with a first-round armbar at UFC 331, then disclosed that her left knee had given out seconds before she secured the finish.

Moura caught an early kick from O’Neill and used it to drag her to the mat. It was at that precise moment, O’Neill said, that she felt her left knee buckle beneath her. Unable to use her left leg effectively and feeling her toes cramp, she was forced to improvise from a compromised position on the ground.

“I threw a kick and my left knee gave out,” O’Neill said in a post-fight interview. “So, it was really weird. I don’t know if it was like a cramp or something happened. But I kicked, my left knee went and I was on the ground. I felt like I hadn’t had a chance to get my momentum going or anything. Then I tried to use my left leg and she was on my left side and it wasn’t working so well. And I could feel my toes were really cramped over. I was like, ‘I’m gonna have to make something happen here.’ So bided my time, didn’t feel like I was in too much trouble at all. And pulled something off.”

Moura landed several damaging strikes and attempted a brabo choke before O’Neill turned the fight on its head, flipping her opponent with her legs and locking in a slick armbar that drew the tap within seconds.

The result moves O’Neill to 12-2 and marks her second consecutive first-round finish since returning to competition this past March. That comeback followed nearly two years on the sidelines with a severe right knee injury — making the left knee scare at UFC 331 a particularly unsettling echo of her recent medical history, even if the outcome proved she could adapt under pressure.

Moura, now 12-3, drops to 3-3 inside the UFC and has lost back-to-back bouts.