‘It Was Growing In My Elbow’

Sean Brady has revealed the disgusting reason he is not fighting at UFC 290, which takes place inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, next weekend (Sat., July 8, 2023)

Late last week, MMAMania.com confirmed Brady was scratched from his upcoming fight with Jack Della Maddalena because of an undisclosed injury. Then, just last night (Sat., July 1, 2023), the Top 10-ranked Welterweight revealed the scary injury through a lengthy post via his Instagram.

“Hey guys, as most of you know, I recently had to withdraw from my fight next weekend. I noticed a small blister on my left elbow after training on Monday night and woke up with pretty bad swelling and pain,” Brady wrote. “As most of you know, I had a pretty serious staph infection in 2021, which resulted in surgery and 4 weeks of IV antibiotics through a picc line.

“My wife, being a nurse, took a look at my arm on Tuesday morning and told me it would be the best idea to go to the hospital (for what we thought would be 1 dose of IV antibiotics) and get discharged and go about the rest of my camp and head to Vegas,” Brady continued.

“Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. My arm continued to swell, and wasn’t taking well to the antibiotics. The swelling and pain got worse, the orthopedic surgeon had to drain my elbow twice and send cultures to determine the correct antibiotic course. Thankfully by Thursday they were able to pinpoint that Streptococcus B was growing in my left elbow which quickly spread to my bursa causing a septic bursitis.

“I was able to get discharged but still having some swelling and the doctor said there’s no way I’m able to fight and I need to let this heal,” Brady concluded. “I’m crushed because I put my heart and soul into this sport and this camp, I sacrificed going on a honeymoon with my wife, spent money I’ll never get back. But, things happen man and I’ll be back stronger than ever.”

According to CDC.gov, Streptococcus B, or Group B Strep (GBS), is bacteria that can cause severe infections.

After learning about the news of his opponents withdrawal, Maddalena offered an open challenge for any Welterweight (or Middleweight) to step up, while also slamming Brady by saying, “he s—t the bed.”

Brady responded to Maddalena in the same Instagram post revealing his injury.

“To Jack, I’m sorry we won’t be able to get to share the cage together, I know you worked just as hard as me but as for saying “Brady sh-t the bed” I expect that from an internet troll, but not a fellow fighter himself, so shame on you and I hope you/none of your teammates have to go through this in the future.

“We’ll see each other someday soon,” Brady continued. “To my fans, thank you for the continued support. This is just a bump in the road for Team Brady and we’ll be back doing what we do when I’m healed up. Love you guys.”

A few fighters have jumped at the opportunity to fight Maddalena next weekend such as Chris Curtis, Kevin Holland and Bryan Battle, but as of this writing, no replacement has been signed.

Brady, 30, is coming off a technical knockout loss to Belal Muhammad at UFC 280 (watch highlights). He was scheduled to face Michel Pereira in March, but had to pull out of that fight with an injury as well.

To checkout the latest UFC 290 fight card and rumors click here.