Sean Brady tells Belal Muhammad ‘I did a lot better’ against Leon Edwards than you did

Sean Brady became the first fighter ever to finish Leon Edwards when he snatched a fourth-round guillotine choke to end the UFC London main event, an even more emphatic victory than reigning welterweight champion Belal Muhammad had in a similar position eight months ago.

To capture the title, Muhammad put on a largely dominant performance against Edwards and ultimately won a decision after five hard-fought rounds. During the fights Saturday, Muhammad took to Twitter saying “Sean copied my homework” after he employed a similar grappling-heavy approach to beat Edwards.

Brady was quick to remind Muhammad that his fight against Edwards had a slightly different outcome.

“I think I did a lot better than Belal did,” Brady said in response to Muhammad at the UFC London post-fight press conference. “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. 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. Just remember that.”

While he didn’t necessarily copy exactly what Muhammad did when he fought Edwards, Brady acknowledged that the game plan was definitely a sound strategy. He just executed it in a better fashion.

“That’s how you beat Leon,” Brady said. “The blueprint was kind of written in a lot of his fights and I just did it a lot better than anybody else has been able to do it. 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 and I could see he was breaking.

“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. Once I knew he wanted to grapple with me, I knew it was going to be over soon.”

The submission finish marks a third straight win for Brady since he suffered the only loss of his career when he fell to Muhammad by knockout back in 2022.

As much as that loss still stings to this day, Brady believes his lone shortcoming has actually aged well considering the remarkable run that Muhammad capped off by becoming champion this past year.

“If you look at Belal’s record, he has an amazing record,” Brady said. “He has me on there, he has a lot of good guys on there. People just shit on me for losing to him, it is what it is but that loss was the best thing that ever happened to me. Clearly, I’m on a nice little run here and who’s the last person to finish Leon? Me. I’m doing pretty good.

“I’ve been rooting for Belal since he beat me. Of course. The better he does, the better it makes my loss look to him. He went out and beat Leon and now he’s fighting Jack [Della Maddalena], which Jack is a super tough fight. I was getting ready for Jack for our fight before when I had to pull out and I know how good he is and Jack can knock anybody out in the world. But you can’t bet against Belal. He finds ways to win and I think he’s going to win that one. Of course, I want him to be champion when we fight again but if for some reason he does lose, I would fight him for a No. 1 contender. There’s options out there.”

Considering what he just did to Edwards, Brady has put himself in a prime position to potentially challenge for the title sooner than later.

The biggest obstacle standing in his way right now is likely Shavkat Rakhmonov, who had a title shot scheduled last December until an injury forced Muhammad to drop out of the fight. Once Muhammad was healthy again and ready to fight in May, Rakhmonov was dealing with an injury of his own that led to Jack Della Maddalena getting the opportunity instead.

Nothing is set in stone as far as who gets the next shot after Muhammad vs. Della Maddalena at UFC 315 on May 10, but Brady believes what he did against Edwards was far more impressive that Rakhmonov squeaking by Ian Machado Garry in his most recent performance.

“You tell me? Is the statement coming in here and beating Leon in his hometown? I think so,” Brady said. “If you look at Ian’s last performance and Shavkat wasn’t great. Jack’s fight before that, he was losing to Gilbert Burns before he wasn’t. I just dominated Gilbert Burns. I just dominated Leon Edwards. So I think I’m right there.

“I mean I don’t make those calls, the UFC does. But I think if you look at the people I’ve been beating versus Shavkat, I think I have a pretty good [argument]. Gilbert Burns and Leon Edwards, my last two versus his last two I think were ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson] and Ian Garry. I got a nice little record going. I just want to keep adding names to my resume and we’ll see what happens.”