2025 Australian MMA Promoter of the Year - Cam O'Neill

Third year in a row. Cam O’Neill takes it again because 2025 might have been the hardest year yet to keep Eternal moving forward, and he still pushed the sport ahead.

Quick shout out to Ben Vickers as well. He is basically the co-promoter in practice, just far more behind the scenes, and the fact he is also Jack Della Maddalena’s head coach tells you the level of operator he is. Eternal doesn’t run this clean without that engine room.

What separates Cam is how he handled a year where so much talent got pulled out of the ecosystem. Cam Rowston moved on to the UFC. Others were tied up in UFC-related pathways and opportunities like Jack Becker, Dom Mar Fan, Daichi Kamiya, Kuya Ito, Seb Szalay, and Lawrence Lui. For most promotions, that kind of drain forces a slow year.

Cam did the opposite. He found new champions and made new stars.

Giving a title shot to a 2–0 Matty Iann felt like a real risk, and it turned out to be a star-launching decision. Backing David Martinez when others might not have, then giving him the runway to move up to welterweight and chase history, paid off too. Martinez claimed the welterweight title in Sydney and cemented himself as a multi-divisional champion. Not to mention celebrating 100 Eternal MMA shows and then some.

But that’s the job. Not just putting on shows, but building an ecosystem that survives success. Cam O’Neill did it again.

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