Per the UFC’s president Dana White: “The winner of Gilbert Burns versus Belal Muhammed is next in line for a welterweight title opportunity.”
The proposed welterweight title-challenging eliminator was established just two weeks shy of UFC 288 as an originally planned bout between Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush was scrapped.
Burns was fight-ready, having competed twice in 2023 already. But this wasn’t the case for Muhammad, who hadn’t fought since October of 2022 and had recently been involved with Ramadan’s fasting and spiritual growth.
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