UFC welterweight Sean Brady learned the hard way not to call out a fan favorite. When he called out Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, Brady was subjected to some serious backlash from Thompson’s die-hard fans. Speaking to MMAFighting, Brady opened up about the experience, citing his grappling pedigree as the main reason for such a vitriolic response.
“I know [a fight with] Wonderboy, that’s not going to happen. He doesn’t want to fight another grappler.
Backlash Brady Blasted by Fans for Wonderboy Callout
I got so much heat online for calling him out. I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m No. 9, he’s ahead of me, what am I supposed to do? Not try to fight a guy [ranked] ahead of me?’
Everyone is just like, ‘Let Wonderboy go fight strikers.’ This isn’t kickboxing. This isn’t Muay Thai. This isn’t karate. You’ve got to fight guys who grapple. Your job is to not let me take you down, for you to stay on your feet, and if I do take you down for you to get back up. So I’m not even touching the Wonderboy thing anymore because people have been roasting me online, but I would love that fight.”
Even more baffling for Brady was that he felt it was a pretty nice callout, by MMA standards.
“It was literally the nicest callout ever.
I didn’t say anything bad about this man, and that’s not who I am. A lot of people tell me, ‘You’ve got to start talking s***.’ I’m not going to change who I am to get a fight. It’s going to take me a little longer to get where I want to go, but that’s been my whole career.
I’ve had pullouts, staph infections, a lot of s*** that’s happened in my career, but at the end of the day I’m still undefeated. I’ve won all of my fights, it’s worked out for me at this point, and I’m not going to take any shortcuts.”
Brady knows it’s just a matter of time before he gets his hands on a ranked fighter and makes his way towards the belt.
“I would love the Belal fight, I would love the Masvidal fight.
Once you get above that, Gilbert Burns is [ranked] high up there and he just fought Khamzat Chimaev. I have so much respect for Gilbert. I think he’s one of the best guys in the division, he wants a big name and I get that, but I would love to test myself against him if he ever gave me that opportunity.”
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