Gilbert
Burns claims he labeled Belal
Muhammad unworthy of a title shot mostly because he doesn’t
like “Remember The Name” very much.
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A welterweight title shot has inexplicably evaded Muhammad, who is
currently on a 10-fight unbeaten streak that includes a dominant
decision win against Burns. Burns recently received some flak from
Muhammad for stating that “Remember The Name” still doesn’t deserve
a gold bid.
However, “Durinho” has now backtracked on his comments, even
offering an apology to Muhammad. Burns blamed his comments on his
dislike for Muhammad due to the latter running his mouth after
their fight.
“I think Belal
Muhammad deserves to fight for the title,” Burns recently said
on Renato
Carneiro’s YouTube channel. “For the numbers, you know. He
deserves [it]. The guy has a crazy winning streak. Ten fights, I
don’t know. I think he deserves [it].
“To be honest, I just have something that I’m like, ‘That guy beat
me. I got hurt,’ then he was talking so much. But I shouldn’t have
said it the way I did. I apologize. I think he does deserve the
title shot even though I don’t like the guy very much.”
While Burns would like to see Muhammad get his long overdue shot,
he isn’t sure if that will materialize given recent events. The
Schmo recently reported that Muhammad’s name was not among the
three opponents offered to welterweight champ Leon
Edwards for UFC 300 on April 13.
“I lost to the guy, I was injured. He was kind of like, ‘Oh, I beat
Gilbert
Burns this way’.…I don’t hate anyone. I just don’t like him
very much because he was saying too much, but I wish the guy the
best,” Burns said. “I do believe he deserves the title shot. I
don’t know if the UFC gonna give or not because Dana just said ‘Oh
we asked Leon
Edwards three different opponents.’ And the guy [Muhammad] is
supposed to be the No. 1 contender. They don’t give to the guy. But
my opinion, I want him to fight for the title.”
Meanwhile, Burns is set to return to action on Saturday against
surging Australian contender Jack
Della Maddalena at UFC
299 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. Maddalena hasn’t lost a
fight since 2016, mounting a 16-fight winning streak that includes
six UFC outings.