Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad both targeted a showdown with Colby Covington but ultimately agreed to face each other at UFC 288, with a potential title shot on the line.
Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad had the same idea after hearing that UFC 288 needed a new co-main event. With ex-UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira unable to compete on May 6 and his fight with Beneil Dariush pushed back to UFC 289, the welterweights made the call to attempt to jump onto the Newark card. Initially, neither Burns nor Muhammad called to fight each other but instead each targeted a showdown with Colby Covington, who had previously been declared the No. 1 contender at 170 pounds despite being out of action for over a year.
Muhammad recounted how he first heard of the opportunity by saying, “Last week, I was in Canada and I was doing charity work out there, working with an organization, and I just saw that the Beneil Dariush fight got cancelled. I hit up my manager and asked where’s Colby [Covington] at? Let’s try to get Colby on the card… ‘He hit me back the next day, ‘Colby’s not going to do it but Gilbert will.’ I was like OK, let’s go.” Burns then shared a similar experience, as he heard directly from UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, who reiterated the promotion’s plans to book Covington against reigning welterweight champion Leon Edwards later that year.
According to Burns, he was fresh off a short vacation with his wife in Mexico following a win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 287 when he got the idea about fighting again in May. Initially, he expected to serve as a backup fighter for Edwards vs. Covington, but once he realized that bout wouldn’t happen in July, he began thinking about other options. Burns said, “No way [I was waiting]… If it was July, if these guys were fighting July 22, I would wait. But October, no way. I’m going to fight my way in, and like I said at the beginning of the year after my fight in Rio, I’m not asking, I’m not complaining, I’m not [begging], ‘Please give me a title shot.’ No, I want to earn it. I want to earn it by hard work. I’m going to outwork all these guys.”
While both Burns and Muhammad were open to the idea of fighting each other rather than Covington, there was still some work to get done before anything was official. Muhammad, who hadn’t fought since October and was out of the country when he heard the news about UFC 288 needing a co-main event, noted, “It’s a huge opportunity for me, so I don’t even want to give Colby any clout or any attention… Right now the two best welterweights in the division, the two No. 1 ranked guys are fighting each other on May 6, and we’re the only ones who are willing to fight the next best guy always… So I think for the UFC, for the fans, they know what the real No. 1 contender fight is. Whether they give it to [Colby] next or whatever, it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I know if I win this fight, my next fight’s going to be for the title, regardless.”