Chuck O’Neil’s hips don’t lie.
The CES welterweight champ is enjoying life as a vastly improved fighter and an overall better version of himself. No, this isn’t the same O’Neil you remember from The Ultimate Fighter 13. That O’Neil admittedly “hit like a b—h.”
With the help of boxing and MMA trainer “Diamond” Dave Keefe, this newer version of O’Neil is turning over his hips and relying on refined technique instead of caveman toughness. Ricardo Funch was the first victim of Keefe’s training, which O’Neil has attributed to much of his recent success.
It was on full display for a second time in O’Neil’s first-ever CES title defense in January against Emmanuel Walo, who was knocked cold in roughly 11 seconds. O’Neil left the cage that night without even breaking a sweat.
“My coach Diamond Dave is always saying, ‘We don’t get paid for that round, let’s go out there and be the boss and takeover,’” O’Neil told Bleacher Report.
“We’re always trying to finish fights between me and my main training partner, Eric Spicely. So that’s both of our thing,” O’Neil explained. “We go out there and try to get the fight done fast and get out of there without any bumps or bruises. So you can’t complain about that.”
One of the most important aspects of being a professional fighter is dieting. You can’t expect to make it to the top drinking beer and eating cheeseburgers. Fighters sacrifice the harmful, yet satisfying luxuries of life to maintain elite-level conditioning.
Once the fight is over, it’s Hulk smash time for most athletes. In another life, you would have thought O’Neil was a Ninja Turtle after all of the post-fight pizza he’s consumed. Bring on Takeru Kobayashi, because this man can throw down.
“I ate with my close-knit family and friends in just like this little s—-y bar upstairs from the event,” O’Neil said. “But the next day I had a lot of pizza. The day after that I had a lot of pizza, and the day after that I had a lot of pizza. I’m a pizza fiend so I actually ate three bar-style pizzas, mozzarella sticks and french fries in one sitting. So it was pretty impressive.”
After the glorious dining, O’Neil returned to training with Keefe, a man who isn’t known for beating around the bush. Complete honesty is paramount in any coach and student tandem. True world champions aren’t made by cutting corners.
So when Keefe looked O’Neil straight in the face and told him he “hit like a b—h,” it was out of love from a man strictly upholding his coaching duties.
“I was mostly happy about finally getting a knockout in my career,” said O’Neil. “I’ve never had one, and I’ve been with Diamond Dave since September leading into my Ricardo Funch fight, and when I first started with him, he was like, ‘You hit like a b—h.’ He’s very straightforward, and it’s great to have a coach like that.”
“Over a short period of time, we started turning my hips over, and we started to be able to actually crack so it was awesome to put that into play so fast and come out with the results that we were able to come out with.” O’Neil continued, “I was just stumbling all over myself throwing muscle man punches. It’s good turning the hips over. It feels a lot better.”
Perhaps the biggest lesson O’Neil has taken away as a fighter is that being tough isn’t enough to pay bills. While he is still eager as ever to exchange with opponents, a more mature, technical fighter is beginning to emerge. O’Neil admits toughness got him to the UFC, but it didn’t help him stay.
He’ll be ready when the UFC comes calling again, but for now, he has his hands full with Dominique Steele on Friday night at CES MMA 29. A win would make it five in a row for O’Neil, who has finished three of his last four fights.
There has been a little trash talk leading up to this fight, but O’Neil hasn’t been swayed at all by the pre-fight chatter. He plans on being the same smooth, calculating fighter that won CES gold.
“That’s the biggest thing. You don’t want to go out there and try to force a lot of things to happen,” he said. “You’ve got to take what comes to you, and at the same time, do your game plan. If you stay smart and stay tight, a finish is going to come. That’s what we’re going to do. I’m not just going to come out and just overload on my right hand. We have avenues to win the fight wherever it goes.”
“It’s going to be good when everything comes together in that cage, and I land that first punch, we walk up for the first time and hit the ground for the first time,” O’Neil said. He’s going to realize he was talking s—t about the wrong guy because I ain’t no b—h.”
When asked for a prediction, O’Neil paused for a moment to channel his inner-Nostradamus before giving MMA fans an outcome they could take to the bank.
“Alright so—stoppage,” he said.
All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
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