Former UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal shares his thoughts on upcoming UFC 288 co-main event between Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad

On Sunday, May 7, Gilbert Burns, and Belal Muhammad will square off before Henry Cejudo fights Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight championship in the co-main event of UFC 288. Burns is recovering quickly after his last fight, which was just one month ago. The Brazilian advanced towards a second opportunity to challenge for the welterweight title by outpointing Jorge Masvidal at UFC 287, and he might still be able to do it if he defeats Muhammad.

Meanwhile, after losing to Burns by a unanimous decision at UFC 287 in April, Masvidal announced his retirement. "Gamebred" gives Muhammad a number of advantages but sees more chances for Burns to prevail.

“I think it’s going to be a good fight for (Burns) – tough,” Masvidal told MMA Junkie. “I think Belal has, in the cardio department, more advantages in the grappling, I think. Gilbert has different weapons with a little bit better power than Belal. So I think it’s going to be a very interesting, good fight. I could see either one of them winning, actually. I think Belal is a little cleaner with the boxing.” Masvida was quoted as saying by MMA Junkie.

Masvidal appreciated Gilbert Burns for recovering fast

However, Masvidal didn’t shy to heap praise on Burns for staying active and recovering so fast. He even said that Burns's victory against him was the biggest win of his career, however, he also said that people should support Burns for providing back-to-back great fights.

“That’s what fighters when I was coming up used to do, and then it kind of faded out where fighters didn’t want to fight no more. Like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to put my prestigious 3-0 record in the UFC up.’ This is the fight world. Everybody is going to fight everybody. You get down and dirty and nasty and get after it." Masvidal said.

“He just had the biggest win of his career, Gilbert, and here he is fighting Belal. He could have just sat out now until a title shot and he’s getting the title shot at some point, no doubt about that. But that just shows Gilbert is a fighter, and people should get behind him because that’s what he’s coming to do is fight.”