Gilbert Burns sends a bold message to Colby Covington following win at UFC Brasilia

UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns sent a bold message to Colby Covington following his first-round TKO win over Demian Maia at UFC Brasilia.

Burns knocked out the Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Maia in brutal fashion in the first round of their co-main event attraction and immediately took the microphone afterwards, where he called out Covington to be his next opponent. Both men are Florida-based fighters and after beating the No. 6 ranked Maia, Burns will be able to say that he deserves a fight with the top-5 ranked Covington based on merit.

Following UFC Brasilia, Burns spoke to the media where the reaffirmed his callout of Covington, and he didn’t mince words for his rival.

”I say I’m going to beat you the f*ck up motherf*cker,” Burns said (via MMAFighting.com).

”You’re going to eat those words, and you’re going to pay an expensive price for them. I’m coming for you.”

Before UFC Brasilia the prospect of a Covington vs. Burns fight would have seemed farfetched. Covington is one of the elite welterweights in the game and showed that in his epic title fight against Kamaru Usman at UFC 245. Even though Covington lost the fight to Usman, he’s still one of the best in the world at 170lbs. Burns, meanwhile, didn’t have a top-10 win until he beat Maia. Now that he has Maia on his resume, he has a legitimate argument that he should be the next to fight Covington based on the rankings alone.

Although Covington probably wants a rematch against Usman or a grudge match against Jorge Masvidal next, he’s unlikely to get either of those two matchups. Burns might not be the biggest name in the sport, but he knows how to sell a fight. The prospect of Burns and Covington talking trash at each other is something that should excite any MMA fan. And stylistically, a matchup between the two grapplers sounds fun, too.

Do you want to see Gilbert Burns fight against Colby Covington next?