Belal Muhammad reveals ankle injury heading into UFC 288 win over Gilbert Burns: “I had to push through it”

UFC welterweight contender Belal Muhammad had to fight through an injury on Saturday night.

‘Remember the Name’ made his return to the octagon in the co-main event of UFC 288 over the weekend. There, Muhammad faced former welterweight title challenger, Gilbert Burns. ‘Durinho’ entered the contest off lopsided victories over Jorge Masvidal and Neil Magny in the first half of 2023.

However, the Brazilian’s winning streak came to an end on Saturday. Muhammad dominated the former title challenger, as Burns was seemingly dealing with a shoulder injury. The Chicago native wound up winning by unanimous decision, moving his undefeated streak to 10. In that stretch, Muhammad scored wins over names such as Sean Brady, and Stephen Thompson.

As it turns out, Belal Muhammad was fighting with a brutal ankle sprain at UFC 288. During fight week, some fans online noticed that the welterweight’s ankle was badly swollen. Now, in an interview with ESPN, Muhammad admitted that he was fighting hurt and that he suffered the injury weeks ago.

However, the ankle injury was reaggravated during the fight week. Nonetheless, Muhammad didn’t view pulling out of the contest as an option and decided to fight on.

(via Cooper Neil/Zuffa LLC)

Belal Muhammad reveals ankle injury heading into UFC 288

“Yeah I mean, you go into fights all the time with injuries,” Belal Muhammad stated in the interview. “… When you rush things right away, I was trying to go balls to the wall in two weeks, injuries happen, stuff happens. But once it gets to fight night, I had to push through it because I knew once the adrenaline starts pumping you’re not going to really feel anything anyway. For me to take a fight on two weeks’ notice to try and pull out the week of, bro that would give me the worst look ever.”

He continued, “I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to let that happen’. God makes things happen for a reason, God pushes everything for a reason. He tests his strongest soldiers, and if we could get through this we could get through anything. Thankfully, we got through it.”

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