5 Defining Moments: Sean Brady

Sean Brady finds himself in position to make some real noise in the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight division in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

The 31-year-old Philadelphia native will look to inch ever closer to title contention when he locks horns with Gilbert Burns in the UFC Fight Night 242 main event on Sept. 7 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Brady, who enters the cage with a stellar 16-1 record, has secured eight of his 16 professional victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission. He last suited up at UFC on ESPN 52, where he turned away Kelvin Gastelum with a kimura in the third round of their Dec. 2 pairing.

As Brady sets his sights on Burns at 170 pounds, a look at five of the many moments that have come to define him:

1. A Champion’s Swagger

Having already emerged as a blue-chip prospect on the East Coast regional scene, Brady laid claim to the vacant Cage Fury Fighting Championships welterweight crown when he disposed of Tanner Saraceno with a guillotine choke in the first round of their CFFC 65 headliner on May 20, 2017 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Saraceno raised the white flag of surrender 3:36 into Round 1. Brady executed two takedowns and paired them with effective ground-and-pound. Saraceno set off a scramble but ran into a brick-wall sprawl from the Daniel Gracie protégé. Brady wheeled behind him, attacked with punches and later climbed to full mount, at which point he finished it with a one-arm guillotine. He went on to defend the title twice—Mike Jones and Tajuddin Abdul Hakim were the victims—before signing with the UFC in 2019.

2. Court Adjourned

Brady made a successful Octagon debut and kept his perfect professional record intact, as he captured a unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 winner Court McGee in a UFC on ESPN 6 welterweight prelim on Oct. 18, 2019 at TD Garden in Boston. Scores were 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27. Discrepancies in speed and power were too much for McGee to overcome. Brady hammered the Factory X rep with repeated leg kicks, held his own in the clinch and let his quick, powerful hands do the rest. He floored McGee with a left hook in the first round, staggered him with another in the second and successfully navigated the onset of fatigue in the third.

3. Room to Spare

In clearing yet another hurdle at 170 pounds, Brady choked Christian Aguilera unconscious with a second-round guillotine as part of the UFC Fight Night 175 undercard on Aug. 29, 2020 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The end came 1:47 into Round 2. Aguilera stood his ground in the standup exchanges but conceded a takedown with roughly a minute remaining in the first round. Brady exploited his clear advantage on the mat, applied his ground-and-pound and set the stage for what was to come. The Philadelphian struck for another takedown inside the first minute of Round 2, locked in the guillotine choke, moved to a mounted position after readjusting his grip and waited for Aguilera to lose consciousness. It was the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt’s first submission win in almost three years and brought with it a $50,000 bonus for “Performance of the Night.”

4. Pulling Rank

Brady put his most significant victory to date in the books with a unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 15 winner Michael Chiesa in their UFC Fight Night 198 co-main event on Nov. 20, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28. Chiesa was a step behind for a majority of the first two rounds. Brady executed multiple takedowns, methodically moved to advantageous positions and slowly tightened his grip on the match. Chiesa answered with a strong Round 3, where he unloaded with flying knees, right uppercuts and left crosses in a clear bid to change his fate. Brady withstood his push, battled through visible fatigue and took care of business, establishing himself as a Top 10 contender at 170 pounds.

5. Growing Pains

Belal Muhammad proved his worth in the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight division once more when he took out the previously unbeaten Brady with punches in the second round of their featured UFC 280 prelim on Oct. 22, 2022 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The curtain fell 4:47 into Round 2. Brady tried to keep the former Titan Fighting Championship titleholder at bay with leg kicks and counters but never managed to draw the action to the canvas, where his world-class jiu-jitsu skills might have come into play. Muhammad connected with an overhand right late in the second round, hit the accelerator and unleashed a burst of unanswered punches that prompted referee Lukasz Bosacki to wave it off while a visibly compromised Brady was still upright.