Record: 12-2
Age: 31
Weight class: Welterweight
Height: 5’8″
Birthplace: Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada
Next Fight: Dec. 15 vs. Craig Shintani (11-4) at Unified MMA 54 in Enoch, Alberta, Canada (UFC Fight Pass)
Background: Some fighters enter martial arts shortly after they can walk. Some are born into a martial arts family. Tom O’Connor is neither of those scenarios. He admits, he stumbled into the game – and through hard work, he’s picked it up pretty quickly. O’Connor is a former rugby and hockey player. The athletics have always been there. When the road of competitive rugby and hockey came to an end, O’Connor needed to fill a void. Enter kickboxing. Eventually, O’Connor connected with coach Brad Wall and he caught the MMA bug. He took on every class available. The training was fun. The education was fun. Hitting things was fun. He loved it. He went on a 9-1 and was a pillar of the briefly revived XFC promotion. Since the promotion’s demise, O’Connor has gone 3-0 for Unified MMA with three stoppages.
The skinny: O’Connor focused on the process. That’s where his pressure lies. He’s not really interested in focusing on tasks that haven’t crossed his plate yet. Sure, the major promotional call will come, but it’s not something he can control. All he can do is zone in on his training every day in the gym and put on solid performances when it comes time to fight. So far, that recipe is working. He’s a fun fighter who has finishes on the feet and on the ground. He doesn’t shy away from tough matchups despite the relatively limited amount of bodies on the Canadian regional scene. He signed up to fight a 7-0 fighter before an 11-4 stepped in as a replacement – both good tests. Despite his modesty and level-headedness, a fourth straight win under the banner of leading Canadian promotion Unified MMA could certainly get him that UFC call.
In his own words: “I think I bring a really well-round game to the table. With my mentality, there are all these little things we’re doing as athletes to get a little edge – to get that one percent edge over our competitors. Some of the things that separate me from the pack are the really good people around me who keep me grounded. They’ll say, ‘Hey, you put in all that work. All those inches add up to the mile.’ … With my confidence in myself and my team and my training, I feel like the mental edge I always do have that. I’m ready to go on fight night.”
“… I’m trying to leave no stones unturned. I’m learning to be the best I can be with the best grappling, overall game. … I’m continually filtering what’s working and filtering out what’s not working. That process is never-ending learning. You keep getting better everyday – one percent everyday. I think if you do that with anything in life, working toward your goal of 1 percent everyday, then it really is the little things outside of your control that you don’t have any effect over, they won’t matter as much.”
“… Really what I’m trying to do in my career is elevate my skill set and game to the very best it can be and fight the very best fighters in the world. Right now, that’s in the UFC and that’s where I want to be. Other organizations are on that path and that’s OK with me as well. I want to have good fights against the best in the world. I want them to be exciting, entertaining fights that showcase my high-level skill and my always-improving skill. If I had to write this all down on paper – that’s it.”
This story originally appeared on MMA Junkie