CES MMA welterweight champion Chuck O’Neil is coming off a statement win as he defeated Emmanuel Walo in January in eleven seconds by knockout to retain the CES MMA title.
In addition to the statement win in January, he also did something new in his life that month as he began training as a professional wrestler under Biff Busick in Rhode Island.
He recently had his first professional wrestling match and being a professional wrestler has been a childhood dream of his.
“I am officially a professional wrestler as well as a pro MMA fighter now,” O’Neil told The MMA Report. “It was a pretty cool experience. I got to go out and wrestle against one of my best friends and main training partners Eric Spicely. We have been kind of training in professional wrestling since January under Biff Busick down in Providence, Rhode Island. He asked us if we wanted to have a match together and we were like ‘hell yeah.’ It’s kind of been a childhood dream of both mine and Eric’s so it was really cool to go out there and do that.”
When you hear about a MMA fighter beginning to train as a professional wrestler, you can not help but wonder if that fighter is looking to make a change. This is not the case for O’Neil as he only does professional wrestling training when he has free time away from his MMA training.
“It’s not going to be a switch type situation, but I am going to stay focused on MMA and see where the wrestling takes us as well. Both Eric and I are very focused and determined with our fights as well. We are going to make sure business is in check as far as training goes but at the same time, we do have free time. We are not training every day of the week so during that time is when we do our wrestling. It’s not too hard on our bodies surprisingly enough. It’s a lot of fun right now and just kind of see where it takes it.”
His next MMA fight will take place on June 12th as he will be headlined the CES MMA 29 card coming from the Twin Rivers Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island and he will be defending the 170 pound title against Dominique Steele.
Steele (12-5) has won six of his last seven fights and has competed in both Strikeforce and Bellator. His most recent win came last month against Nick Duell. O’Neil explained that he knows he is facing a tough challenger, but he has a message for Steele.
“He seems tough as hell. He is one of those guys that is going to come at you and try to grind the fight out in any fashion possible. The kid has submission wins that are from punches. That signifies somebody that is tough as hell and who is going to bring their A game at you. I am going to be ready and with that being said — I do know know if he is trying to hype it up and if he is talking s–t like that already, he is going to have a rude awakening when we get into that cage. That first tie up he has with me, he is going to have a rude awakening.”
O’Neil plans to walk away from the victory and this may be the fight that gets him back into the UFC. He thought that call was going to come after his last fight, but he will continue to work until the phone call finally comes from either Joe Silva or Sean Shelby.
“I thought that was the case last time and I went out there with an impressive win,” he said. “Unfortunately, it did not come. I am not going to sit there and cry about it. There is nothing I can do besides get back in the gym and get better. Come out and keep performing the way I can. If I keep going out there getting stoppages, eventually they are going to take notice and bring me back in. I am going to handle my business and the rest will take care of itself.”