Sean Brady isn’t buying the idea that Joaquin Buckley’s work with Kamaru Usman will make a difference when they meet at UFC 328.
Brady is scheduled to fight Buckley on May 9 at UFC 328, which takes place at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The welterweight clash pits the No. 7-ranked Brady against the No. 10-ranked Buckley in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings.
Buckley has been training with Usman ahead of the bout, but Brady brushed off any perceived advantage. “I don't think it's going to help him at all,” Brady said. He added, “Anyone with a brain can look and say there's a blueprint (from the loss to Usman), but I'm sure Buckley is looking at me and saying the same thing in his mind. My only two losses have been TKOs. Got TKO'd by Belal (Muhammad), got caught early against (Michael) Morales, so he's probably thinking the same thing that I'm thinking. He's going to try to keep it on the feet, and I'm going to try to take him down.”
Brady, who owns an 18-2 MMA record and an 8-2 UFC record, emphasized his confidence in his ground game. “I just think I'm a way better overall fighter than he is. He's super explosive on the feet, but I know if I get you on the ground, I can submit anybody in the world. That's the biggest difference between me and Kamaru is that I'm a submission threat. Kamaru's not a submission threat.”
Brady also made it clear he isn’t interested in any trash talk. “I don't care what Buckley has to say about me,” Brady said. “It's not real with him. He's just trying to sell a fight, which is fine, but I'm just not going to engage in it. I don't care what he has to say. He can say whatever he wants, because at the end of the day Saturday, we're going to fight each other, and then that's when I'm going to let my talking do what it needs to do.”
Brady aims to rebound from his quick TKO loss to Michael Morales at UFC 322 in November and remain in the 170-pound title picture, while Buckley enters off a unanimous decision loss to Usman in his most recent octagon appearance in June.
