Belal Muhammad has had his say on how he thinks Jorge Masvidal will fare on Saturday night in the co-main event of UFC 287 in Miami.
Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal goes up against Gilbert ‘Durinho’ Burns with Jorge being a sizeable betting underdog, the fight is also Jorge’s first in over a year. Despite this Muhammad believes that “Gilbert is not that bad a matchup for him”.
Muhammed explained his theory to MMA Junkie “I think Gilbert’s wrestling isn’t as good as Colby’s or Kamaru’s. His ground game is obviously good, but Masvidal fought Demian Maia in his prime and he didn’t get tapped out. He didn’t get submitted. So, I think if he plays it safe and Gilbert gets emotional, and it becomes just a straight-up striking match, I think Masvidal has a chance”
“Honestly, I’ve got Masvidal winning,” Belal elaborated, “I think Masvidal will beat him. Burns, his last fight was against Neil Magny and he just like walked through him. I think the level of competition that Masvidal has come from fighting and I think taking that time off, you get a little bit of reset and we saw that last time.”
Belal calls on Masvidal to finish Burns
He expects an emotional fight out of Burns and therein lies the key for Jorge to get a KO finish, along with better takedown defence that people give him credit for “I do think it will be a finish,” Muhammad said.
Belal points to Gilbert’s history “I think that Gilbert Burns, we’ve seen him get emotional in there, we’ve seen him just make it a striking match, we’ve seen him not fight smart. I think that he does gas a lot. Masvidal does have a good gas tank, I think his last fight he fought really emotional and he almost finished Colby in the third or fourth round with a hook. So, I think he’ll be all right”.
Belal believes that with a finish Jorge Masvidal is next for the title, despite Colby Covington being the favourite for the fight with UFC President Dana White.
How do you assess Gilbert’s “emotional” fighting style? Will this be the key factor in Jorge picking up a win at UFC 287?
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