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Lachlan McNeil Talks O’Connor’s Leadership & Trajectory

Having Spent Significant Time With UFC Royalty, Lachlan McNeil Of UNC Wrestling Has High Hopes For Teammate Austin O’Connor’s Venture Into MMA.
By Walker Van Wey • Jun. 6, 2024

Most people saw the toughest guy on the mat at any given time, but when Lachlan McNeil looks at Austin O’Connor, he sees the model leader.

To win a National Championship, you’re not required to share the mat with a former National Champion. If you have more discipline and skill than anybody on the mat and avoid the occasional stroke of bad luck, you can come from nothing and reach great heights in college wrestling.

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UNC Tar Heel McNeil was able to share the UNC banner alongside O’Connor for two years and saw how O’Connor was able to do just that, pulling in UNC Wrestling’s first National Championship since TJ Jaworsky’s final title in 1995.

“He did a lot,” McNeil said. “Obviously, he led by example and that’s the biggest thing I could say. Going to somewhere like North Carolina, obviously we’re developing a program now and I think in four or five years, it’s going to be a powerhouse. When he came to North Carolina, there weren’t any National Champions. If I went to the Penn State room, I could see how the National Champions trained and all my teammates. Austin was the only guy who I could go get answers from and see what a National Champion trains like.”

Accolades speak for themselves, and O’Connor probably would’ve had a captive audience every time he spoke based on his accomplishments alone, but it was the way he carried himself that always stuck out to McNeil.

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Even if he didn’t have the hardware to back his words, O’Connor carried himself in a way in the practice room that would’ve elicited undivided attention.

O’Connor also carried himself with a certain toughness without ever trying to that jumped off the page at the team. He never needed to shove anybody around or mentally dominate anybody for the team to know he’d make one hell of a cage fighter.

“He’s actually very low key,” McNeil said. “He’s very relaxed, he doesn’t have an ego like that. He has a competitive ego, as in he thinks he’s better than everyone, and he’s confident, which is obviously what every competitor has, but he doesn’t walk around demanding ultra respect from everyone. He’s very much just like one of the guys, but you could definitely see people censoring themselves around him, because you see him beating people up in a room, and the last thing you want is to get beat up at a practice.”

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With close ties to the A-List of MMA, McNeil knows enough to know anything can happen in the cage, so he’s not ready to crown O’Connor the next Jon Jones just yet, but he does know that he was built for the cage.

“I think he could no doubt be successful in MMA,” McNeil said. “I think he’s tough enough, I think he’s got good wrestling. I would not be surprised if his style was similar of a lot of the Dagestani wrestlers, and I think that could work for him. I’m sure he’s pretty set on MMA, and Austin may be very quiet, but he’s a pretty confident guy. I remember when I would talk to him, he’s pretty confident he’s going to do well in this. I would say we’re probably going to remember him more as an MMA guy than a wrestler in the future.”

Catch Austin O’Connor’s professional debut at Fury FC 91 Sunday, June 9, ONLY on UFC FIGHT PASS!

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