Gilbert Burns explains why he wasn’t surprised Belal Muhammad beat Leon Edwards: “Cannot deny him”

Gilbert Burns wasn’t surprised that Belal Muhammad defeated Leon Edwards to become the welterweight champion.

Burns fought Muhammad back at UFC 288 in May of 2023 in a No. 1 contender bout. The Brazilian ended up losing by decision, and after the fight, Muhammad held out for over a year to get the title shot against Leon Edwards at UFC 304.

Ultimately, it was Belal Muhammad who pulled off the upset as he scored a clear-cut decision win over Leon Edwards to become the new champion. Although some were surprised Muhammad won, Burns said he wasn’t as he knew Muhammad was a bad matchup.

“I kind of saw that coming,” Gilbert Burns told MMA Fighting.“Especially (because) Leon is a great fighter, but whenever he was saying, ‘I’m going to knock this guy out’ — bro, it’s hard to knock Belal out. The guy has a chin. Leon Edwards in the last, I don’t know, 10 fights, he has maybe one knockout against Kamaru (Usman). Other than that, he doesn’t knock people out.

“On technique, striking-wise, Leon Edwards is very, very good. But, putting everything together with the pace, with the volume, staying in your face with takedowns, dirty boxing. Especially doing the camp with Islam (Makhachev) and Khabib (Nurmagomedov), I kind of felt that was the path for Belal to win — and he did exactly what he had to,” Burns added.

Gilbert Burns figured Belal Muhammad would over overwhelm Leon Edwards

In the fight, Belal Muhammad pushed the pace to tire out Leon Edwards. The was the game plan that Gilbert Burns thought Muhammad would use to get the win.

“He had a long layoff preparing for this fight. I think he was feeding off the (fact that) UFC made him wait, Leon made him wait. He was fed up with that, he was very hungry, he worked super hard. You saw he was in amazing shape. I just thought Leon would do a little bit better job defending. But, I still (expected to see) Belal overwhelming him with work. Belal looked very good in becoming champion. People cannot deny him anymore,” Gilbert Burns said.

With Belal Muhammad getting the win, it’s likely that Shavkat Rakhmonov will get the next title shot. As for Gilbert Burns, he’s set to headline UFC Vegas 97 on Saturday against Sean Brady.