Gilbert Burns zeroes in on Colby Covington as ideal 2024 comeback opponent: “Ready to go”

UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns wants Colby Covington early next year.

‘Durinho’ has been out of the cage since a short-notice bout with Belal Muhammad in May. There, Gilbert Burns suffered a lopsided unanimous decision defeat. In the welterweight title eliminator, he also suffered multiple muscle tears in his shoulder.

Now, back in training, Gilbert Burns is eyeing a fight with Colby Covington for next spring. As of now, ‘Chaos’ is slated to face Leon Edwards at UFC 296 in December, in yet another bid for welterweight gold. For his part, the Brazilian believes ‘Rocky’ will win next month.

With that in mind, Gilbert Burns believes a future fight with Colby Covington makes sense. However, speaking to TMZ Sports in a recent interview, he admitted that he’s unsure it will happen. Due to the former interim champion’s inactive nature, the Brazilian isn’t sure they’ll get to fight. However, he still wants ‘Chaos’ in 2024.

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(via Cooper Neil/Zuffa LLC)

“I’m clear, no pain, the shoulder is moving good.” Gilbert Burns updated fans on his recovery speaking to TMZ Sports. “All range of motion is back… March or April, UFC 299 or UFC 300 I will be ready to go. I’m kind of waiting on that [title fight], we’ll go from that. I think Leon Edwards is going to win, but both of these guys, Leon and Colby they fight for the title right now.”

He continued, “But they’re not active fighters right now. They’re going to fight, they’re going to take a big break, then they’ll fight again. I would love to fight Colby. But again, we have to wait, there’s a lot of things that need to happen. I think Leon Edwards is going to get the win, but who knows when [Colby] would come back… That would be my number one pick.”

What do you make of these comments? Do you want to see Gilbert Burns vs. Colby Covington?