Sean Brady isn’t buying what Leon Edwards has been selling.
Brady faces Edwards in the main event of UFC London this Saturday. It will be the first fight for “Rocky” since losing the welterweight title to Belal Muhammad at UFC 304.
There has been a lot of talk since that fight about when the bout actually began, which was in the early morning hours in the U.K. to cater to the American audience, which Edwards, and his head coach Dave Lovell have publicly said effected the now-former champion. Brady believes that if the bout happened at any point of the day or night, the result would’ve been the same.
“No, I don’t think there’s any truth to that,” Brady told MMA Fighting. “Because if you look at it the same way, same way when Leon fought Kamaru the [second] time, he was down, he was out, and then he landed that kick. He was losing that fight until that point, and then he threw a good kick and then and then landed.
“Even the third fight, I personally think Kamaru won that fight. “If you look at a lot of Leon’s fights, he kind of gets discouraged, like when things aren’t going exactly his way, [he] kind of lets off the gas. So, yeah, I think Belal had a great game plan, and I don’t think the time zone mattered at all or the time of the fight. I think Belal was just a better fighter that night. ...
“I’m going to put him on his back foot and he’s going to stay there the entire time. You can’t let him be comfortable coming forward once he gets comfortable. That’s when he does his best work. So if you go and watch the film, you put him on his back foot, make him uncomfortable, he’s not the same person.”
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Edwards said Brady has a style that he’s “used to,” and it was “way easier to adapt” to the switch of opponents from Jack Della Maddalena — who now faces Muhammad for the belt at UFC 315 in May — to Brady after a run that included to fights with former champ Kamaru Usman, a matchup with Colby Covington, and then Muhammad.
Brady agrees with the sentiment that Edwards has been preparing for a more grappling-heavy style, but that doesn’t mean it’s an ideal situation for multiple reasons.
“I think I’m just a way better actual grappler than all those guys, including submissions, ground the pound, takedowns, all that,” Brady said. “But if you look at that style, that style has given him all of his losses in his career, a lot of close fights that he, I think, personally lost. So yeah, it’s not a great thing to say that you see you’ve been there, done that, man. It clearly still works against you.
“It worked early in your career when you lost to Claudio Silva, and now it just worked against Belal. So clearly there’s something still going on there.”
After suffering his lone career loss to Muhammad at UFC 280 in October 2022, Brady bounced back to rattle off wins over past title challengers Kelvin Gastelum and Gilbert Burns, with the latter being his first UFC main event.
The 32-year-old feels confident in the blueprint that’s there to pick up the biggest win of his career, and put him in a great position for title contention — although, that’s not his priority at the moment. The tough thing in Brady’s eyes is that a huge win for him means the fans in attendance who support Edwards may have to go home with frowns instead of smiles.
“I go out there, I press forward, I put Leon on his back foot, I make him uncomfortable — whether it’s for 25 minutes, or whether I get a finish — I’m leaving there with my hand raised, and there’s going to be a lot of sad U.K. fans, unfortunately,” Brady said.
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