Leon Edwards is not the only one who thinks Belal Muhammad is not worthy of the title shot. Even the Briton’s coach, Dave Lovell, has another name in mind: Gilbert Burns.
After making his latest win at UFC 296, Edwards is already assessing the possible opponents challenging him next. This includes Muhammad, who served as the backup in his bout versus Colby Covington last weekend. However, for the welterweight champ, Muhammad is “a boring fighter,” saying he prefers Shavkat Rakhmonov more as the Kazakh could be “a good fight.”
Lovell thinks the same about Muhammad, albeit suggesting the No. 4-ranked Burns instead of Rakhmonov. According to Lovell, while Muhammad deserves a spot against his student, Burns could offer a more interesting fight. The coach also addressed the eye-poking incident between Edwards and Muhammad, suggesting that the former had already proved he could beat “Remember The Name.”
“Well, let’s put it real — Belal’s earned his place, hasn’t he?” Lovell said during an interview on The MMA Hour. “Even though he still hasn’t done what Leon did. He didn’t go through the tribulations Leon did. But you know what? He’s earned himself his contendership. To be honest, if I really had a choice, but I don’t think it will happen, I would like Leon to fight [Gilbert] Burns. But Burns had two bites at the cherry. I think maybe they’d want Burns maybe to have a couple more [wins] before [a title shot] if he was going to be a contender.
“But if I had a choice who would be next, I would prefer Burns over Belal, because I think Burns brings more to the table than Belal. Because Leon’s beaten [Muhammad] — well, I shouldn’t say that, he had the no-contest against Belal. It looked like, you can’t judge it by the first round totally, but it looked like Leon obviously had the first round locked down with Belal and he was going in for the kill the second until the eye poke occurred. But yeah, if I had I choice, overall, I would like Burns, but we’ll take whoever they throw at us.”
Despite this, Lovell stressed that there’s still no exact name to put beside Edwards in the next fight, as UFC CEO Dana White himself didn’t provide any detail after UFC 296. Yet, in case the promotion gives the spot to Muhammad, Lovell said there’s no issue about it. As for the timeline of Edwards’ next fight, Lovell said the team is considering UFC 300 “if he’s down for it.”
