Sean Brady isn’t afraid to work for his opportunities.
In March, Brady dominated former champion Leon Edwards at UFC London, launching himself into the thick of the welterweight title conversation. While welterweight currently has a logjam of contenders at the top, Brady’s impressive win seemed like it would make him a lock for some form of title eliminator matchup next, if not a title fight. Only that’s not exactly what has happened.
This week, the UFC announced that Brady will fight undefeated prospect Michael Morales at UFC 322 in November. It’s the worst kind of fight for a contender, a difficult opponent who is behind him in the rankings and doesn’t have the same hype as some of the other top names. But that didn’t stop Brady from accepting the challenge, and on a recent episode of his BradyBagz podcast on the SteadyPicks YouTube channel, Brady explained why.
“I took this fight because fighters fight, and there’s literally no other options,” Brady said. “From what the UFC told me, this is it. This is the only guy I could fight or else I wasn’t fighting until next year. I’ve been trying to fight, and no matter what, we’re going to have to fight all these guys regardless.
“Michael Morales is a great fighter. He’s 18-0. He’s going to be around for a long time, he’s young. So whether I fight him now or I fight him later, I’m going to have to get to him eventually. So f*ck it, I’ll get him out of the way now.”
“Coming off beating Leon, and then I take this risk of fighting this young up-and-comer, once I beat him, I’m undeniable for the title shot after that. And that’s what I’m going to prove to do. I’m just going to become undeniable until they have to give me the title shot.
“I’m not waiting around. I’m not trying to sit here. There’s no perfect matchup in the UFC. Everyone is tough; everyone hits hard. We’re the best fighters in the world. So you’ve got to be ready to fight any of them, and this is what they came with, and I said yeah.”
Only 26 years old and currently ranked No. 6 in the UFC welterweight rankings, Morales is 6-0 in the UFC and coming off the biggest win of his career, a first-round knockout of former title challenger Gilbert Burns in May. Some believe the Ecuadorian fighter could be the future of the welterweight division, but he is several spots behind Brady in the rankings, making a title shot far from a guarantee with a win. But Brady insists that part doesn’t matter.
“At the end of the day, the UFC doesn’t give a f*ck about the rankings,” Brady said. “They make the decisions at the end of the day. I go out there and beat Michael Morales after just beating Leon, they can’t keep denying me a title shot. They make the fights. The rankings don’t make the fights, the fans don’t make the fights, the UFC makes the fights. So I keep going out there, I keep being undeniable, you’re going to have to give me what I want, regardless.
“And if not, I’m a fighter. I get paid to fight. I love to fight. So I’m just going to keep fighting until I get there anyway.”
And for Brady, it doesn’t really matter who he faces anyway, because regardless of opponent, the outcome is going to be the same.
“I’m going to beat him the same way I beat anybody else in the world: I take him down and I submit him or I ground-and-pound him until the ref pulls me off.”
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Valter Walker (14-1) vs. Louie Sutherland (10-3); UFC 321, Oct. 25.
Sean Brady (18-1) vs. Michael Morales (18-0); UFC 322, Nov. 15.
This is the toughest kind of fight: high risk, low reward. I’m glad Brady is confident about his title shot, because I am far less so. Welterweight has too many names right now, and most of them are bigger than Brady.
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