The Welterweight title picture is really heating up these days with Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad picking up wins in their recent fights. The 170lb weight class was seemingly getting boring with the top contenders only fighting themselves.
Within the span of a year, things have changed dramatically one after the other to bring some heat back to the division.
Gilbert Burns was looking to redeem himself following his title fight loss to Kamaru ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Usman. In his new pursuit, he took on top-ranked opponents like Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson and beat them convincingly.
He also fought Khamzat Chimaev when nobody else wanted to fight him but lost the fight by a close decision.
Belal on the other hand always struggled to find his footing amongst the fans. After getting eye-poked by Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards, he had to take a hiatus from the sport for a bit.
After the loss, ‘Remember the name’ went on a 3-fight-winning streak against hotshots like Damien Maia, Stephen Thompson, and Vicente Luque.
But the real challenge came when the Palestinian was scheduled to fight against undefeated prospect Sean Brady. Belal enrolled in Khabib’s camp for training and defeated Brady handily. Now no one was able to deny the long-time coming Welterweight prospect and title conversations began taking place in MMA circles.
Gilbert Burns was surprised when Belal Muhammad took his place in the rankings suggesting a potential fight was declined. To which the 34-year-old replied by showcasing his super impressive resume. But after picking up a win against Neil Magny, it looks like Durinho might be attempting to steal the matchup against Colby Chaos Covington.
In a recent interview with Chris Weidman, he claimed, “They were gonna give me Colby Covington, and then all of a sudden, Gilbert Burns got a hold of it and now Gilbert Burns is trying to steal my fight. I’m like bro relaxed, you beat Neil Magny…Don’t think you just skipped the line.”
But the prospect is ready for other matchups too, “If it’s the fight that guarantees me the winner gets the next(title shot) then for sure I will fight Gilbert Burns and if he wants to coach The Ultimate Fighter, then I think that is also a good opportunity.”
Do you think Belal Muhammad vs Gilbert Burns is a good matchup?
