I beat Leon Edwards ‘a lot better’ than Belal Muhammad did

LONDON – Sean Brady took Belal Muhammad’s blueprint and one-upped him at UFC Fight Night 255.

Brady (18-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) dominated former welterweight champion Leon Edwards (22-5 MMA, 14-4 UFC) on the ground then submitted him with a guillotine choke in Round 4 of Saturday’s main event at The O2 in London.

Muhammad outgrappled Edwards to become champion at UFC 304, but wasn’t able to finish him. Brady thinks becoming the first to stop Edwards should account for something.

“That’s how you beat Leon. The blueprint was kind of written in a lot of his fights, and I just did a lot better than I think anyone else has been able to do it,” Brady told reporters, including MMA Junkie, during the post-fight news conference.

“Even when he shot on me – Leon’s a very technical fighter, but when you make it a real hard fight, he tends to break. I could see he was breaking, and I knew he broke once he shot on me because that’s the last place he would want to be is on the ground with me. So once I knew he wanted to grapple with me, I knew it was going to be over soon.”

After the fight, Muhammad posted on X that Brady copied his homework. Brady reminded Muhammad that he was able to do something to Edwards that he couldn’t.

“I think I did a lot better than Belal did,” Brady said. “I think Belal lost a couple of rounds. He had his back taken for an entire round. I think it was 3-2 when they fought? I dominated Leon every round. No one’s ever did it like me. And then I submitted him and made him quit in front of his hometown. If we were in Philly, you ain’t making me quit in front of my hometown, I’ll tell you that. I’m going to sleep, son. So just remember that.”

Brady is open to weighing in as a backup for Muhammad’s first title defense against Jack Della Maddalena May 10 at UFC 315. Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) sees Shavkat Rakhmonov as most worthy of a title shot since their UFC 310 title fight fell through, but Brady thinks his resume may just be better.

“If you look at the people I’ve been beating vs. Shavkat, I think I have a pretty good – Gilbert Burns and Leon Edwards, my last two vs. his last two, (Stephen) ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson) and Ian Garry – I’ve got a nice little record going,” Brady said. “But I just want to keep adding names to my resume and we’ll see what happens.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 255.