Newark — Welterweight Sean Brady expected a tougher fight against Joaquin Buckley at UFC 328, but instead won a unanimous decision that featured a pair of 30-25 scorecards.
What made the win all the richer was the amount of trash talk Buckley engaged in, though much of it didn’t actually reach Brady’s ears.
“Eight weeks ago, I deleted social media, I had his loud ass blocked too just so I didn’t see his sh*t. But it would come across sometimes, like you guys told me that day, what he said about one of us getting cut,” Brady (19-2) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight. “Which obviously Buckley, I just merc’d him for 15 minutes, but he’s not going to lose his job on Monday. He’s an amazing fighter, and that’s just, he just says stupid stuff. I don’t think he believes most of the stuff he says.”
Brady understands that Buckley was working to sell the fight, but added that “when you talk like that, you’ve got to be able to back it up, and it definitely did make it a little bit better knowing that I just beat his ass for 15 minutes after all the stupid— now I’m going to go unblock him and watch all of it and laugh.”
A lot of people are now in the mix, chomping at the bit for a welterweight title shot. Ian Machado Garry, Carlos Prates, Kamaru Usman (though he may move to middleweight), and Brady himself of course. Which means Brady is putting meaningful fights first. That includes sitting out of the UFC’s expected return to Philadelphia if the right opponent can’t be booked.
“I’m not just doing this for me anymore. I’m not going to take another fight back just to fight in Philly. Yeah, fighting in Philly is huge for me and would be huge for my career, but it’s got to make sense for me.”
With three months until that card, Brady noted that a fight that makes sense could be found. “Plenty of time for me to rest up and get back in there. Like I said, I don’t know what’s going on in the division. I was so locked in on fighting Buckley and beating Buckley that I didn’t really care about anything else.”
Watch the full UFC 328 post-fight press conference with Sean Brady above.
