The upcoming UFC Vegas 97 event has shaped up to be one of the most anticipated Fight Night events in 2024. With some blockbuster fights on the card, the main event will witness the return of Sean Brady against the welterweight stalwart, Gilbert Burns. As we inch closer to his first fight in 2024, let’s take a closer look at the training background of the 16-1 star.

Sean Brady has impressed and stood out in the UFC so far with his measured and technical fighting style. Having started his UFC career with 5 wins in a row, the Philadelphia fighter was even undefeated in his first 15 fights before biting the dust against now-champion Belal Muhammad. Regardless, that was an impressive run, and he’s been able to achieve that because of the genius and guidance of his coach.

Who is Sean Brady’s coach?

Sean Brady is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which he acquired while training under Daniel Gracie at Renzo Gracie Philly gym. The 31-year-old continues to train under him, who is also a professional MMA fighter, who competed in many promotions except for the UFC. Yes, during the early 2000s, Dana White‘s promotion had many rivals, including PRIDE in Japan, and Gracie fought there in a few fights.

After competing in a total of 10 professional fights, Daniel Gracie decided to call it a career, amassing 5 wins, 4 losses, and 1 no-contest, and started his own venture of becoming a coach. Meanwhile, Sean Brady isn’t the only fighter who trains under the Brazilian coach, because fighters like Pat Sabatini and Andre Petroski, among many others, have also been affiliated with Renzo Gracie Philly for a long time.

What’s more, Sean Brady has also taken time to train with other top MMA fighters from Philadelphia in another gym, Marquez MMA, under coach John Marquez. One of the most familiar faces there is UFC middleweight fighter Joe Pyfer, who the 31-year-old has cornered in some of his UFC fights.

Sean Brady hasn’t just learned to fight from his gym and teammates, he developed some important values as well. One of those values includes being respectful, which isn’t very common among MMA fighters.

UFC welterweight star talks about the importance of respect

The UFC is home to some of the best trash talkers in the whole combat sports world. Trash talk often leads to fighters disrespecting each other, and sometimes getting too personal with their insults. Fellow welterweight Colby Covington insulting Leon Edwards‘s late father before UFC 296 is one example of that. That for Sean Brady is way out of line because he understands how much it goes into becoming a top MMA fighter.

“I think that people respect me because they know how much of a good fighter I am, but you’ll also never see me disrespecting other fighters,” Sean Brady told the UFC back in 2022. “I know what it takes to do what we do, and it’s not easy. It’s a very small percentage of the world that can do what we do and it’s hard and very stressful, so I’m never gonna be disrespecting fighters.”

Apart from fighters, even fans sometimes hurl insults at fighters, and one such instance led a fan to send death threats to Sean Brady after his UFC 280 fight. It involved a fan claiming that he’d bury him in a desert if he defeated Belal Muhammad. “Someone messaged her [Brady’s wife] and said that if I won the fight against Belal that they would kill me and bury me in the desert – it was pretty bad,” Brady told ‘MMA Fighting’. But that wasn’t it because fans even warned Sean Brady about hurting his wife as well, who was there with him in Abu Dhabi. But fortunately, nothing happened and they remained safe.

Sean Brady got back in the win column last year after facing defeat for the first time in his career. Can he maintain that this weekend? That remains to be seen. Regardless, drop your predictions for the fight in the comments.