Sean Brady followed in the footsteps of Belal Muhammad with his approach to Saturday's main UFC London main event against Leon Edwards.
Brady (18-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) outwrestled Edwards (22-5 MMA, 14-4 UFC) throughout the opening three rounds before securing a mounted guillotine at the start of the fourth to hand the former welterweight champion a second successive defeat in front of the UK fans.
"Rocky" lost his title to Belal Muhammad at UFC 304 in Manchester last July (his first defeat since 2015), and having witnessed how Muhammad was able to implement such a grappling-heavy approach to win that night, Brady carried on where "Remember The Name" left off.
“That’s how you beat Leon. The blueprint was kind of written in a lot of his fights, and I just did a lot better than I think anyone else has been able to do it,” Brady told reporters during the post-fight news conference.
“Even when he shot on me – Leon’s a very technical fighter, but when you make it a real hard fight, he tends to break. I could see he was breaking, and I knew he broke once he shot on me because that’s the last place he would want to be is on the ground with me. So once I knew he wanted to grapple with me, I knew it was going to be over soon.”
Muhammad, who shared an intense rivalry with Edwards over the past couple of years, was active on social media throughout the fight, even tweeting that Brady had "copied his homewaork". Brady was quick to point out that Muhammad wasn't able to put the Englishman away when they fought last year.
“I think I did a lot better than Belal did,” Brady said. “I think Belal lost a couple of rounds. He had his back taken for an entire round. I think it was 3-2 when they fought? I dominated Leon every round. No one’s ever did it like me. And then I submitted him and made him quit in front of his hometown. If we were in Philly, you ain’t making me quit in front of my hometown, I’ll tell you that. I’m going to sleep, son. So just remember that.”
