Burholme native Sean Brady beat top-six welterweight Gilbert Burns on Saturday night by unanimous decision for his best UFC win yet:

Sean looked good. Good pace, good cardio, really seemed to be on top of his game. Gilbert Burns is nearing the end of his career but was 22-7 going into the fight and has taken on everybody in that division, so it’s a legitimate test whether or not Burns is a gatekeeper in 2024.

That’s two wins in a row for Brady after his undefeated 15-0 streak came to an end against Belal Muhammad back in October of 2022, and at the time the Muhammad loss was really disappointing. Brady was TKO’d by a guy who hadn’t TKO’d someone since 2016. It was a deflating performance, or SO WE THOUGHT, because Belal went on a tear and ran through Burns and Leon Edwards to take the welterweight belt. Now you look at Sean Brady’s resume and he’s 17-1 with his only career loss to the best 170 pounder in the promotion. He submitted Kelvin Gastelum with a Performance of the Night in 2023 and put himself back into the title mix with this past weekend’s win.

Sean turns 32 in November and only fought once in 2022, once in 2023, and so far once in 2024. If he can get a little more active and rip off 1-2 more wins, he’s looking at a title shot, maybe a rematch to avenge his only loss, which would be a palatable storyline. The thing about welterweight is that it’s one of the more interesting UFC divisions. There are multiple contenders who have never held the belt or even fought for it, so he finds himself in a group that includes:

  • Shavkat Rakhmonov: undefeated, 18-0 with 10 submissions and 8 KOs
  • Jack Della Maddalena: 17-2, 7-0 in the UFC and hasn’t lost since 2016
  • Ian Garry: 15-0, 8-0 in the UFC
  • Leon Edwards: the former champ, 22-4, just lost the belt to Muhammad

And then there’s Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, two veterans of the division who scrapped twice for the belt. What’s their level of washed-ness and desire? Usman fought Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight on short notice and Colby rarely fights at all.


It makes the whole thing interesting. Brady said he’d be open to fighting Garry or Covington next. Rakhmonov and JDM have done enough to earn title shots, especially in the modern-day UFC where people like Steve Erceg are given the opportunity. The matchmatchers have to figure out how to best book the two undefeated contenders along with JDM and Brady, because there are four legitimate stars to complement the current and former champ.

Brady is easy to cheer for though. Northeast Philly guy. Great accent. He also nailed social media here: