DALLAS – UFC welterweight Geoff Neal thinks a fight with Gilbert Burns late in the summer makes sense.
Burns (22-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) is fresh off a unanimous decision loss to Belal Muhammad in this past Saturday’s UFC 288 co-main event at Prudential Center in Newark N.J., where he appeared to injure his shoulder early on a takedown attempt.
Neal (15-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC), who’s coming off a submission loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 285 in March, is aware that Burns isn’t 100 percent, which is why he suggested August as a timeline.
“I would like to fight Gilbert,” Neal told MMA Junkie. “We’re both coming off an L. It’ll give him some time, I need time to get my sh*t together, and he needs time to probably – I don’t know if his shoulder is f*cked up or anything. He needs time to get his shoulder together. I’m pretty sure he’ll be ready around August, so maybe we can make some sh*t happen in August. Anytime, anywhere, right?”
Neal is the last man to defeat Muhammad, scoring a decision win over the top contender in January 2019. Neal lauded Muhammad for the improvements he’s made since then but feels Burns’ injury affected his performance.
“I was surprised,” Neal said on how Muhammad vs. Burns played out. “I thought it was gonna go different, but I guess his shoulder was messed up. I looked at the fight again. I was like, ‘OK, he really wasn’t throwing. What shoulder was it? His left.’ I was like ‘OK, something might be really wrong.’ That’s the nature of the sport.”
