Rebound performances don’t get much better than what Sean Brady did to Joaquin Buckley this past Saturday at UFC 328 in Newark. Yet as clear as the result was, pre-fight concerns raised some sudden red flags late into fight week.
Brady’s dominant win was ultimately a decent upset to the oddsmakers after suspiciously heavy moneyline shifts swapped him from more than a 2-to-1 betting favorite to a 2-to-1 underdog just hours before the bout. Speaking on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Brady said he had no idea why the lines shifted so dramatically. His team caught wind first, keeping him in the dark until a call came from UFC CBO Hunter Campbell.
“I actually got a call from Hunter Campbell. I was having shades of November 15, when all that s*** happened when Hunter was calling me about my [Michael] Morales fight,” Brady told Uncrowned. “I had a missed call, and I called him back in a second. He was like, ‘I hate to even bring this to you, but I have to ask. Your fight’s fine. Nothing’s happening. There’s some betting stuff going on. Is everything OK?’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘Are you healthy? Everything’s good, right?’ I was like, ‘I am 100% fine, healthy. … I’m good to go. I’m going to beat this dude’s ass. Nothing is going on.’ That was it.
“It kind of sat with me for a couple of minutes. It bothered me a little bit. I’m like, ‘What the f***? It’s always something.’ Then I just let it go, got it out of my mind, and locked back in for the fight. And then we talked about it afterward with the media, but I haven’t been approached since by anybody. It was crazy.”
A similar instance occurred in January when lightweights Alexander Hernandez and Michael Johnson had their fight canceled due to irregular betting activities. Historically, drastic shifts in odds have indicated potential foul play or leaked information about a fighter’s injury. Obviously though, that wasn’t the case with Brady, who looked like a man possessed against Buckley.
Brady recalled talking to his friends about the Hernandez vs. Johnson fight around that time, and how he never thought it could happen to him. The call from Campbell admittedly rattled him, but he quickly collected himself and focused on the task at hand.
“I don’t like to know [the odds] anyway,” Brady said. “So, if a TV comes on and it starts showing the odds, I would cut it right off. I just don’t want to know anything about it. So after Hunter called me, I went online seeing it afterward. It was f***ing everywhere — like holy s***, this is actually kind of a big deal. Then I started looking more into it. But yeah, I just got it out of my mind and re-focused on the fight and went from there.”
It was a night-and-day performance from Brady’s previous fight to his latest. In November, the Philadelphian succumbed to the youthful striking surgeon, Michael Morales, by first-round knockout. Although the loss was a significant setback for Brady, who was on the cusp of a UFC title shot, it made him all the more motivated for Buckley.
“I never felt like I lost my mojo, I just felt like I never got going against Morales,” Brady said. “I think that’s what hurt me the most: I didn’t get to show everything I did that camp. It was the best camp I’ve ever felt, and I just went out there and I got caught and never got going. Now that’s something I promised to myself with this fight — no matter what happens, I’m going to go out there and show what I’m capable of, and if I do that, I’m going to win this fight and show everyone that I’m right back to where I belong.
“Buckley, before he lost to [Kamaru] Usman, he was on a six-fight winning streak, knocking everyone out, very dangerous guy and very dangerous fight for me to take right after what happened to me against Morales. A lot of people were writing me off in this fight, and, man, it feels good to shut them all up — and especially Buckley after the way he was chirping before the fight.
“I really was locked in for this fight. I was locked in all camp, and there was no way I was losing to him and letting him be me sitting here today, getting to talk the way I get to talk.”
Drama built subtly between the welterweight contenders ahead of UFC 328. Brady insisted that it was mostly a one-sided beef, pointing to Buckley’s social media antics and personal attacks that didn’t quite translate to real life.
For Brady, there was no real issue, and he doesn’t consider the fight personal. But he wasn’t necessarily entertained by the way Buckley went about his business for their clash.
“What pissed me off was when he talked about the interaction we had at the [UFC Performance Institute]. He made it seem like he b***ed me up,” Brady said. “There was footage at the P.I., where, if they were able to release it, would show me clearly getting more intense than he was. I don’t do the social media s***, and that’s what I was telling him in person.
“It was all a show. … I’d seen him on Wednesday in the fighter hotel. He’s sitting down, he looked up to me and he said, ‘What’s up?’ But in that moment, if he was really about the s*** that he said online, we would have fought right there. That’s real beef to me. And I don’t have real beef with people because I’m a grown man and I don’t have problems with people, but I do have problems with people who try to play up these personas, then you see them in real life, they’re not about it.
“I know that he said something about my wife and my daughter not being able to save me, and I just told him afterward, ‘I don’t care what you say, but keep my f***ing daughter’s name and my wife’s name out your mouth,’” Brady continued. “Then he was like, ‘Oh, I never did.’ I hate when dudes act like that. It’s not real. I knew that from the jump, but it’s always business, and I took care of business.”
Brady now finds himself back in a strong position, ranked among the elite at 170 pounds.
With the UFC heading back to Philadelphia for UFC 330 on August 15, it could be an ideal spot for Brady to return. However, he doesn’t want to take just any old fight. He wants it to make sense. In terms of available options at present, Brady knows the options are slim within the welterweight ranks. Still, he has ideas in mind for what could fit the bill.
“Usman would be great,” Brady said. “[Carlos] Prates, he’s probably sitting for the title, and I understand why, but he’s not going to get matched up anytime soon with anybody else, so that’s one I would do. But if I’m him, I’m obviously not doing that and want to fight for the belt next.
“It kind of puts me in a weird spot to where I was after the Leon [Edwards] fight. But I’m in a good spot, and I’m coming off a win and everyone knows what I deserve. Maybe it will be Usman, but I’m not sure. … I will be there [at UFC 330] regardless.”
