Sean Brady says his grappling is something Belal Muhammad has never experienced

Sean Brady expects to outmuscle Belal Muhammad during the grappling matches. When Brady faces Muhammad on Saturday at Etihad Arena, he will try to get into the running for the welterweight title. Brady will be fighting the UAE native on preliminary card of UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi.

Muhammad feels that with victories over Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, and Vicente Luque, he has faced every type of opponent in the division. Brady, though, claimed that Muhammad had never engaged in a grappling match.

“It’s a good run, don’t get me wrong,” Brady told at Wednesday’s UFC 280 media day. “But even if you look at the grappler that he fought, Demian Maia, Demian Maia is a jiu-jitsu guy. He’s not a grappler. He’s never been good at takedowns; his takedown accuracy was like 23 percent. The dude was pulling guard and scooting towards people.

But Brady is confident about his skillset and claims that he is going to dictate the whole fight.

“I’m a different animal of taking people down and controlling them and ground and pound and submissions, and I feel like it’s gonna be a lot different. It’s gonna be something he’s never experienced before. Just like people talk about what Khabib feels like, you don’t know until you feel it. These guys don’t know. Until I grab them, they’re not gonna know what they’re in for.”

Muhammad is once again entering the UFC cage as an underdog despite his significant victories in the category. Khabib Nurmagomedov, a former UFC lightweight champion and Hall of Famer, will be in Muhammad's corner, but Brady claims that won't be of any use.

“Belal’s good. He’s good at what he does,” Brady said. “But I just think I’m better at what he does, and I think they just made some tactical mistakes that I’m not gonna make.”

He continued to add some kind words about glorified career of the Dagestani legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, but he claimed that being trained by the Russian or having him along in the corner isn’t going to break his winning streak.

“He’s not Khabib. Islam is not Khabib. Khabib’s Khabib, and Khabib’s lost as a cornerman, and he’s gonna lose again on Saturday night. Guys in Khabib’s camp have lost, so the only one who’s undefeated is Khabib. Belal is not undefeated, and he’s gonna catch another L on Saturday.”