Sean Brady picked up the biggest win of his career as he outworked Gilbert Burns across five rounds to win a unanimous decision in the UFC Vegas 97 main event.
Showcasing non-stop pressure, a relentless pace and much improved striking, Brady just never allowed Burns to get going during the fight. It was particularly impressive considering Brady’s best weapon is his grappling but that weapon was largely negated so he had to display his other tools to beat Burns.
When it was over there was no doubt that Brady had done more than enough to win with the judges scoring the fight 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46 to hand him the victory.
“Gilbert’s a tough motherf*cker but I knew that coming into this,” Brady said after the win. “I just stayed mentally and physically focused. I’m living my dreams, this is amazing. Gilbert, he’s tough as f*ck. I thought I did better work on the feet than on the ground. I stuck to the game plan.”
Brady was actually forced to show off his full set of skills throughout the fight because Burns refused to allow the takedown and when he did, the multi-time grappling champion was quick to reverse positions. That didn’t stop Brady from pushing back into the clinch as he attempted to wear down Burns with a heavy pace.
On the feet, Burns still displayed good power whenever he unleashed his biggest punches but Brady actually displayed solid striking when he was trading with the former welterweight title contender. While he found some success in those exchanges, Brady defaulted back to his grappling as he kept pressing forward, pushing Burns against the cage and then looking for the takedowns again.
When Burns finally got some room to operate, he cracked Brady with a couple of stiff punches and then launched knees up the middle that definitely got the attention of the Philadelphia native. After he got caught with a couple of those hard shots, Brady immediately reverted to the takedown as he slammed Burns to the ground just before the third round came to a close.
While Brady was able to stab away with a slick jab from the outside, he was still getting caught with some big punches coming from Burns on the outside. Burns clubbed him with a couple of big overhand rights but Brady ate the punches and went back to his clinch to slow the pace down again.
That led to another big takedown from Brady but it didn’t take long for Burns to reverse him to once again and show he’s still got some of the best grappling in the division.
With time ticking away to the final horn, Brady started chopping down Burns with some nasty inside leg kicks but the Brazilian wasn’t going away just yet. Burns uncorked a jumping knee but came up short and Brady ended up with another takedown as he started counting down the seconds until he secured his victory.
Burns has now picked up back-to-back wins over Burns and Kelvin Gastelum since suffering his only career loss to current welterweight champion Belal Muhammad back in 2022. He takes a big step forward in the division after beating an established contender like Burns and now Brady is hoping he’ll be facing one of the division’s young guns next.
“I should be ranked way ahead of Ian Machado Garry,” Brady said. “I want someone in the top five. But if not me and Ian got the same f*cking manager, Lloyd [Pierson], run that shit.”
