LUKE THOMAS: SEAN BRADY *GOES OFF* ON IAN GARRY

Sean Brady all right let's get right to it a main event Gilbert Burns five rounds September 7th why was this the right fight for right now so little backtrack um obviously I beat Kelvin and then um they offered me Vicente luk uh March 30th so in the Kelvin fight I tore a little ligament in my wrist and uh I just needed a couple extra weeks so I was trying to get them to push the luuk fight till April and here we are in um July now and I'm not fighting till September so it's been I've been trying to get a fight on the book since literally April and uh this was the first official offer I got for a fight um I offered to fight co uh not Kobe I offered to fight Ian when I knew Kobe wasn't fighting but um the UFC want to go a different way they want an MVP so yeah this is the first official fight offer I got uh it's a little far away like I said I want to fight sooner but it's Gilbert it's a main event um and yeah I feel like our like I it's I feel like it's the perfect matchup at the perfect time realistically what does a win here mean I mean it's huge right uh if you look at the two guys last that beat Gilbert below mahamed he's fighting for a belt and then Jack JDM he was supposed to be fighting shovot for a number one Contender fight and unfortunately he got an infection in his last fight and I'm pretty sure he's out for a while but if you get past Gilbert Burns you're you're right there it's only been a few guys at 170 that have beat him those two I just named and then Camaro I mean that's that's pretty much it so uh yeah if I beat him it puts me right in the top five against Ian Gary or Kobe or one of those bigger names so let's talk about Gilbert Burns black belt at the World level in uh or excuse me world champion at the black belt level I apologize um but he's well-rounded let's put the let's put aside for just a second the well roundness and just kind of focus on the ground game diagnose his game for me what do you see yeah I mean obviously his top game is very good um he's not basic but his submissions are rear naked chokes arm triangles like just basic solid Jiu-Jitsu he he can play on the bottom like he was saying in his interview yesterday he feels like he's well-rounded in his game guys are kind of scared to engage him on the ground because they're not confident in their Jiu-Jitsu cuz you start going forward he's diving under for legs he's looking for K guard he's looking for back exposure he's looking for all these things where these guys aren't comfortable at where me if I get on top of him I'm going to be very comfortable in him going for those leg locks exchanges like my two coaches are black belt under Mikey musami so these are two of the best guys around and what are what are their names Nick Salis and Danny Myra they're are gyms called movement art these guys are they're 147 like they compete at 147 so they walk around like 165 170 they give me the hardest roles I've ever had in my life like these guys are it's all sports jits like it's modern Jiu-Jitsu these guys are wizards but um yeah Gilbert's good on top he's good on bottom and I think this is gonna be the first time he's going to run into somebody who's not scared to engage with him on the ground when he starts trying to go underneath of me I'm not going to be pulling my legs out and running the way I'm going to know how to defend and continue to attack you you're talking about the modern Jiu-Jitsu game I I I kind of want to dig into that a little bit um obviously there's always been a bit of a gap between them but what's kind of funny is tell me if tell me if I'm wrong or if I'm getting part of this wrong or I'm not understanding it correctly it felt like there was a real while there where MMA Jiu-Jitsu and and Sport Jiu-Jitsu were really far apart and that's still true in a lot of ways it's not like I'm not saying it's true yes but but there is one kind of commonality like the wrestling in sport Jiu-Jitsu is getting better the ability to get up is getting a little bit better or to um you know not stay underneath in these bottom positions in the same way anymore there's a lot more pinning that's involved yeah do you agree with this assessment that there's a little bit on certain levels back of a convergence into MMA Jiu-Jitsu almost yeah 100% um I honestly feel like the level of Jiu-Jitsu and the level of MMA like MMA guys suck at Jiu-Jitsu like most of them are really not good at Jiu-Jitsu when you take out strikes when you take out all these other things and you just put them in a noie or geese scenario like these guys really have a hard time they struggle because of how far Jiu-Jitsu has evolved you know like the things these guys are doing um it's crazy like you put a an modern MMA guy into a class they don't know heel hooks they don't know leg locks they don't know all these things so for me like I feel like I'm almost getting a Cheo by training with these guys and I'm learning because I came from like old school Jiu-Jitsu Daniel Gracie henra Gracie's cousin like that was my first coach in Jiu-Jitsu and now I'm with these different guys where like I'm I've been in black belt for 10 12 years I think and I go into these classes and I feel like I'm a brand new student which is awesome like I get to go in there and I'm learning all these new things so I feel like I almost have an advantage but yeah you're 100% right Jiu-Jitsu from if you're a world champion 10 years ago or 20 years ago trying to be a world champion now they're they're completely different sports like it's not even it's not even on the the same level and then also like I I've been paying attention like some of the things Craig Jones says and one of the things that sort of this was a while ago this is not this might be new to certain viewers who are watching it's not new to to you certainly which is that he just really doesn't believe in side control anymore because your legs are free they can plant weight and they can drive your hips and you can turn it doesn't work and so he's a much bigger fan of pinning I'm wondering where are you in that your top game because obviously a lot of it is control but you also have to punch and you need to keep them well not flat because sometimes you do a lot of work from Turtle too so how do you navigate that it's it's tough but you are 100% right where like Craig is right if you have a guy who's explo say like me like someone on the bottom like can create a lot of force and explosion from side control we're going to get out almost even Mount too because it's so easy guys are so good especially MMA at turtling they turn they Turtle they post and they're separating the hands and they're back to their feet before you know it you've lost a position where half guard you're connected to them like I have a hook under your leg and I'm I'm stuck to you same thing with turtle turtle like you can you can either choose to be or not be separ be connected I like to hook the the leg closest to me so I'm connected to you I want a connection even guard like I'm almost go like I almost go back to where I like being in the guard more than side control because the guy has to open up for him to separate but if he doesn't open up I can just sit there and I can punch and like you said it's not just Jiu-Jitsu you want to open up and use punches so I like the guard me and Dean Thomas we go over that all the time like he loves the guard I love the guard and then I go right to half guard but those are the two positions you really want to be especially like you said for pinning if I let your shoulder start to get exposure that means you can start to either frame into me or you can start to Turtle away from me now when you're in half guard you can't Turtle away because I'm I have your leg hooked and if you turn into me I have the option of cross facing you and just flattening you back out where side control all guys need is one big bump and they're gone even Mount to be honest you have a strong guy they get on your hips they start bumping they're going to be out of there so um yeah there the sport is evolving where side control like I like it for the crucifix so you can still do some things from there but there's um there's a lot of risk how did you get hooked up with Dean Thomas so after I lost to Bal I was in New York when um Pereira knocked out Izzy at the fights and I seen him and we just started chatting and I was like like man I would love to work with you I remember seeing him in t in Woodley's corner I seen him in um a bunch of different guys I know he was working down to at for a while before he stopped fighting and but then when he stopped fighting he became a full-time coach so I'm like man like I would love just get in with this guy and pick his brain and that's how it became and him and my coach became super close now he comes up to Philly he was just in Vegas with uh and Robertson me and my team were out there with Joey so we all every time we get a chance we connect he comes up to Philly like he'll be up here probably a good amount for this camp and he'll be in my corner so yeah he's uh he's a very very good mind for MMA what help us understand what he brings to your preparation man he's just just the whole MMA game you know like I bought his instructional before I even started to work with him and he's almost the same way he reminds me almost like a like a Craig on like the pinning and creating damage where like that's something that we brought out in my Kelvin fight was I didn't I controlled him very well like like Gilbert was saying yesterday I'm very good at controlling guys but sometimes I don't open up to create damage where that's what me and Dean are working a lot on now is pinning hands controlling the legs leg riding and so I can punch I an elbow and then either finish them with ground and pound or open them up for submission and that's where I feel Dean really shines is on the ground and that's where he's been helping me a lot yeah certainly uh he's been a black belt for I think as long as I've known he he's existed yeah right at Old School UFC days so he's been around for it's just it's so funny because if you don't know Dean then you only know him as like sometimes he's a he's a good co he's an analyst but he's kind of like a jokester you know but he's he's sent me sparring footage before like he's actually like a a super Encyclopedia of the game which is kind of interesting he's breaking he breaks down like the fights I've been I was working I started working with him for the Jack fight and then I had a pull out because of my um my elbow infection but he breaks everything down frame by frame he's like look and he's not just breaking down your opponent he breaks down you and he's like yo this is where you're shitty this is where you need to get better so he keeps it real and uh that's what that's what I love about him but yeah he's he's a great addition to our team and he brings so much knowledge all right here we go let's play a little game right here we go so I'm not asking you to rank them this is not hey give me five to one the best that's not what I mean but in no particular order okay in no particular order give me five MMA Grapplers that you like to watch that's it so I'm not asking for the best I'm just saying hey who's a MMA Grappler like I like to watch that man or lady do their work who who do you got for me give me five can they be retired or current Fighters I prefer current but I'll let you have I'll let you have at least one retired okay okay Damen Maya okay Charles ala great choice Gilbert Burns okay ah let me think about these all all Brazilians right so far all Brazilian so far um let me think Gary tonin okay and my last one will have to be Islam yeah okay all right and let's go through the Islam very quickly what do you like about them rapid fire top game uh same thing as me kamora uh very basic basic jiujitsu but very good top pressure and stuff that works Gary tonin the ability to create scrambles and Chaos Gilbert Burns same thing as um same thing as Islam most basic submissions but very very effective uh let's see Charles Olivera the ability to submit from Top and bottom triangles arm bars um platas all that good stuff the back too yeah the back yeah yeah and then uh Demi and Ma I think I know what the answer might be but let's hear it the back yeah the the back um my wrestling coach Cody hamr was um Damian's uh wrestling coach for a while so we always I actually ran into Damien for the first time in uh in Vegas so super nice guy um but yeah the back control for Damen when he gets on your back it's usually uh usually going to be a done a done deal um can we talk about something that I don't know what the right let me just ask it this way which is your physical health now obviously you're young and you're in phenomenal shape it's not really what I'm saying but you mentioned the ligament injury on the wrist you've had staff a number of times so let me ask the question this way do you find that you get injured or somehow compromised about the same as your teammates a little bit more or a little bit less probably it's hard it's probably a little bit more so it's funny the thing I found with both I've only had staff twice and each time I had it it took me out of competition and they were both within two weeks of my fight so it's both when I'm cutting weight and my immune system is run down so that's something I've taken into consideration where I'm really trying to make sure I don't have any exposed Cuts or anything like that and then the thing with the ligament in my wrist I just it was with Kelvin it was in a fight but um I definitely think the main thing I've learned is that I probably train way too hard and I don't recover as much as I should and focus on just pure recovery days and that's something that I'm starting to um take into consideration like I was just in Vegas I did um all kinds of testing at the pi and yeah so we got all kinds of good data even like right now I'm 190 I was 194 when I was at the pi and my body fat was 9.4 so they they're like man like you're 10 weeks out and you're super lean already they're like it's great cuz that means you get to eat your entire training camp they're like but just try not to get any lower than that because that's when injuries start to occur so just learning things along that is what I'm really trying to just be better with in my training because it's really just me training too hard and then not not doing what I need to recover and when my immune system is run down from cutting weight that's literally the two times I've had infections they both me yeah that's crazy I mean you you know Dr Mike is Rell in the same way that I do his his his his expression on this is the one that makes the most sense um you can only train what you can recover from that's it if you can't recover you're screwed so yeah give me an example of what overtraining and obviously overtraining is accumulative it's day after day but on an individual day what what is too much so too much for me would be like um not in a weeks on weeks stacked of doing three a days for six days a week so like I'll give you like today like I had training at 10: a.m. um MMA grappling then I have strength and conditioning it was just a lift and then I will do Jiu-Jitsu tonight so that's three so I'll do three sessions then tomorrow morning we have sparring I have a kid I'll do um zone I'll do like a zone two or zone three conditioning workout and then I'll do kickboxing drills at night but now where I would go and do another three workouts on Thursday I I take Thursday and I do one session and it's a super light session so I can rest for Fridays sessions and then we have small gloves sparring on Saturdays and that takes Sunday completely off so but that's what it would be three it'd be three days stacked and just I would just run through that now we're like I'm almost trying to I have a super smart strengthen conditioning coach like I'm almost trying to incorporate um like D Lo weeks into my training camp so we're 10 weeks out from the Gilbert fight I'm almost going to incorporate like a whole week in probably four or five weeks from now where everything kind of ramps down it'll ramp back up and then two weeks before the fight it'll ramp back down where I'm used to like we Spar like the week before the fight which probably isn't the best thing to be doing so I'm going to start to move that last hard sparring session a little bit back but I just like I just like training and that's where my confidence comes from so I want even when we're cutting weight like I like to do R just I'm not going live but I like to drill and move and hip pads and do all these things where your body's just like listen you need to like just ramp it down and because you're you're you're shot at that point so I'm definitely getting a lot smarter with that working with the guys at the pi um we're coming up with a with a really good game plan for this Camp did you D Lo before the Gastelum fight no I didn't but um that I I had so much motivation coming into that fight I had canceled fights coming off the Bala fight I didn't need a dad week you know like I just need to get in there and and did what I and do what I do and it just sucks that every time I get a little bit of um momentum something happens where like this like I've literally been hitting on my manager since April like when am I fighting when am I fighting been trying me he manages me and Ian I'm like yo I was texting him every day I'm like Kobe's not going to fight this I want this fight as soon as they tell you he's not fighting and then eight weeks before the fight I was actually getting ready to run the Broad Street with my wife it's just like a 10 mile run he calls me he's like hey Kobe's out I was like I W in I was like make it happen unfortunately the UFC didn't want it Ian said yeah at first he didn't want it and then um eventually he said yes and then the UFC didn't want it they wanted him an MVP so yeah I've been uh I've been trying to chase down a lot of these guys for a while now so but we got Gilbert and we got five rounds so it's going to be a great test for me and a great test for him too you like the five rounds better man I like three five it it is what if if you can do it's two extra rounds it's going to be it's going to be harder it's a just more work in the training camp but like I just said I I enjoy the work so it's uh more time to work in there and just more experience right because eventually if I'm going the way I want to go I'm going to have five round fights so you have to get in there and you have to get experience in it I was a CH for cffc I think I defended my belt three or four times they were all five round fights I never went to the fifth round I made I got to the fourth and had to and stop the guy but I've been preparing for five round fights for for a long time but it's almost the same thing like guys hear five rounds and like I have to do so much more work and run all these miles and do all these things where it's more work yeah but you have to be smart about it it's two more rounds like it's a little bit more but you can't you can't just completely try to double everything and that's what I would used to do if I ran three miles for a three round fight I'd run six miles for a five round fight and I would just add all these extra rounds where you're just gonna by the time you get to your Camp I mean by the time you get to the fight you're so beat up that like you're gonna be done in one round so it doesn't even matter and that's where like sports performance is really coming into it now where I'm trying to optimize myself I'm doing blood work I'm doing all these things I have all these heart rate monitors HRV like I'm tracking all this stuff so I can be the the best version of myself not uh a weather down 170 PB Sean fair enough let's let's talk about some of the other members of your weight class um what did you make of the Ian Gary and MVP fight man to be completely honest not impressed um not impressed at all not impressed Ian not impressed with MVP either Ian's going on talking about he wants shavod he wants this he wants that I'm like I thought he barely got he scraped through that fight like it I don't I'm not super huge into the judging but it could have been a draw in my book like I really didn't see um where he thought he did an amazing job he caught the kick in the first round he took him down second round I thought MVP won and then we were still in the back doing media with Joey and last I se when we were watching MVP was on top of him and then we walked to the next Media Station and somehow Ian got on his back and then I'm like but he couldn't do anything with it even in the first round he had the body triangle and a almost a fully locked rear naked choke you have Damen Maya in your corner and you can't finish MVP so um and even his striking he got cracked on his feet and he wanted know more parts of it he was saying he was going to knock out MVP in the first round and he barely landed a punch so but I feel like he's got a lot of work to do and I hope obviously not looking past Gilbert I I beat Gilbert Ian said he wants the fight again in December I get to turn that right back around and me and him get to get to finally do do it what do you think happens at UFC 304 between Leon Edwards and Bal Muhammad man obviously uh Bal beat me Bal he's he's a good fighter like he doesn't get the credit he deserves and he finds ways to win and um yeah obviously for me it's better if Bal wins but for some reason I just think he can get it done he uh he's wrestle is better than you think he's going to wrestle he strikes better than he thinks than you think he's going to strike yet creates weird angles and he fight for 25 minutes obviously him and Gilbert they had that fight on like two weeks notice and I've watched that fight a million times now and he wasn't even breathing hard by the end of it so and you can see from Kobe and Leon when they fought Leon gets taken down and then he tries to create a scramble and then he gets on top but he makes mistakes and then he ended up get back on bottom so yeah I feel like Bol is going to be able to to scrape out a decision have you gone back and watched your fight with him and like taken something from it yeah did I went back and I did a lot I went back the first time I watched it uh I did a lot better than I thought I did like while the fight was happening and I was so mad at myself for not staying in the fight so but obviously you can't do that but um I stayed I would hit him with really good shots and then I wouldn't pull back out so instead I would hit him and I would take a picture of my work and that's where he would kind of be able to touch me back so I had to be a little bit more in and out I have to hit him and get out more and then just commit to my takedowns um so whenever me and bl do get the fight again I definitely will go back and take a lot from that but yeah I learned more from that fight than I did all my wins you know they it's really cliche to say and I would always hear people who lost say that they're like when you lose you learn so much more than when you win and I would like you're only saying that because you lost because I never lost at that point and then I lost my first fight and I'm like damn it is true you definitely do learn a lot more from A Loss so then it takes us to Colby Covington now what's really weird about him is like he turned down the fight with Ian Gary and now he's talking about like fighting Charles Oliva or Dustin porier here's my question to you is do you think he actually even fights another welterweight at this point I think Kobe's just looking for like those big big money fights at this point like he had the I know he had the Ian fight like that was offer to him 100% supposedly his foot was still up from um the Leon fight which I heard it is very legit he did break his foot in that in that first round but um I don't think he's gonna like I don't think he's going to fight again I would love to fight him if when I get through Gilbert like I would love to fight that guy I don't think Kobe is very good at all especially at this stage in his career um but yeah he's looking to fight Charles ala he's looking to fight Conor McGregor he's looking to fight these fights that really don't matter and for me get out of the way class then you're just holding up our division's so held up in all these different spots like let these guys out and let the younger guys in who want to fight and wna and want to keep things moving if Jack de matalena fights sha cot Rock manov gun to your head who wins shott tell me why it's because I feel like on the feet they're GNA not even like Jack definitely probably has the better straight boxing but I feel like shovot has the better overall game on the feet with his knees his elbows he has really good kicks he throws those wheel kicks so he's really trick on the feet but then obviously his submissions like he has great submissions and he has really good takedown defense and offense so I feel like shot's overall game is just better than Jack I feel like if Jack's getting the advantage of him on the feet he can take him down and from the Jeff Neil fight you can tell shovot can take a punch because I think Jeff Neil and JDM are probably the two hardest punchers in the division and Shava took some huge punches from me he got dropped but he didn't he didn't go anywhere and then for him to hit that side choke in the third round is is unbelievable the standing side choke yeah crazy CRA the the the schoolyard the school bully but um I'm from what I'm hearing Jack's gonna be out for for a while so maybe they if if they do shot and if they do Ian Ian's getting blown out of the water and he's talking about them sparring and training at Kil Cliffe and he's saying that he did well against them and I just can't see that to be true yeah I'm I I mean obviously I'm I wasn't there I don't know but it just that seems unlikely right that doesn't sound right and Ian and Ian uh he's not a huge one70 pounder like California releases um your weight your weigh in for like the next day when you weigh back in he only got up to like 180 pounds like his last fight in California so we're like I'm rehydrating to 192 193 show her show her some of the other some guys are getting up to 200 so um I feel like he doesn't have that that physicality that he needs at one 70 well we shall see uh but the next step for you is going to be September 7th um this is your first Main Event right in the UFC yeah yeah yeah I feel pretty good about that you gotta feel great about that yeah man it's I was saying to my mom the other day I'm like oh I'm gonna be on a poster like this is gonna be but it's it's awesome man I uh I look up like and I and I like Gilbert like I'm a huge fan of Gilbert so for me to have a main event against Gilbert and really test myself and see where I'm at I feel like it's uh it's a perfect time and it's a perfect opportunity to show everybody who I am and if I get a if I have a win against Kelvin and then Gilbert burns after that my my Stock's G to go through the roof oh one last one I have to get your opinion on this just how do you see what's happening between Craig Jones the Craig Jones Invitational in ADCC how what what takeaway do you have from this whole thing if I wasn't fighting September 7th I would be hitting up Craig to get into Craig Jones Invitational that's why like I would love to do that but uh um it's great it's great it's great for the sport uh he he bought Gordon Ryan's Miata Miata and now he's giving it away he's the ultimate troll like I I love it I love what Craig's doing um it's creating more opportunity for these guys in Jiu-Jitsu like noi's getting a lot bigger but um I didn't realize that these guys only made $10,000 if they won first place at ADCC I thought it was I heard it was I thought it was like a quarter million dollars so I'm like that's like a lot of money for Jiu-Jitsu but um it's only 10,000 bucks which today $10,000 especially if you're doing a training camp the way that these guys are trying to be professional athletes like that's nothing and I get that um ADCC is like I guess they're a nonprofit not they're not they don't make money essentially is what they're trying to say but if you're getting the T-Mobile that cost $2 million why wouldn't you get a smaller place and split that money up between all the athletes you know I feel like there's definitely I love ADCC and I love watching they compete but competition is always a good thing so Craig doing this I hope he can sustain it because then it's going to be huge for these guys but the names that he's getting like who's going to be at ADCC besides Gord like obviously I love Gordon I love I'm G to watch Gordon but like he took the Roo Brothers Mikey's competing and probably I don't know if he's doing the um tournament or a super fight super fight I think either way like that's huge like I said the R Brothers all these different guys he's obviously got all the B Team guys because they're his Squad but they're they're some of the best guys in the world so like he's getting all these different names I think he got Victor Hugo like he's got he's getting all these guys and there's probably going to be more to come and I know that ADCC is opening up spots and inviting different people because they're losing people at a rapid rate so I'm very interested I've been listening to all Craig stuff and uh yeah I hope it I hope it plays out good for him what do you think about it I I don't know what to think I I have the same I have the basic same take as you which is I don't know if it's financially sustainable but I guess we be I don't know how the competition's going to go but I guess we'll I'm like I'm just I'm very very curious he's doing it in like a pit he's making like a pit and I'm have do you watched the karate combat Jiu-Jitsu matches I saw his yeah so like I think it's super cool the way that they do it like I used to watch all the submission undergrounds when they did it in the cage like it's something different and it's going to bring more eyes to the sport and yeah it can't be a bad thing that's for sure definitely can't be a bad thing it's a great way to put it but and what's also not a bad thing is going to be September 7th at the Apex it's going to be uh you taking on Gilbert Burns can't wait to see it sea Brady thank you so much for your time and uh we'll catch up soon again I'm sure thank you Luke I appreciate it