Geoff Neal believes he’s the logical next opponent for Gilbert Burns.
Appearing this past week on The MMA Hour, Neal elaborated on his callout of the one-time welterweight title challenger, which was made after Neal scored an impressive knockout win over Vicente Luque in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 59.
Neal knows that Burns long wanted a fight with Jorge Masvidal (BMF) champion, but he doesn’t understand why Burns and Burns couldn’t fight first.
“It depends on Jorge and it depends on how long Gilbert wants to wait for Jorge to make up his damn mind,” Neal said. I’m here. I’m willing to fight. You can either go ahead, and get it done on MSG or you can wait until December. Gilbert and I could still fight before Christmas. If Gilbert desires it, I am available and ready to fight him.
“Masvidal is always there. You can’t wait. He’ll probably come out next year, mid-March or something, talking about he wants to fight. Why wait for him, when I am right there? I am ready to take on .”
Recently, Masvidal spoke with MMA Fighting to mention that he prefers a major-money fight against Conor McGregor but he’s also open to fighting Burns. Regardless of what Masvidal decides, he’s unsure of how soon he can sign on for a fight as he deals with lingering injuries and an ongoing assault case stemming from Masvidal allegedly attacking rival Colby Covington outside of a Florida restaurant this past March.
Neal, on the other hand, is coming off of arguably the best performance of his career against a top-10 ranked opponent in Luque. With several notable names in the welterweight division either already booked or otherwise out of the picture for now, Neal said the Burns callout was just a matter of elimination.
“I beat Luque and Luque was ranked, what, No. 6, something like that?” Neal said. “And it was a great win. It wasn’t like I barely got through it and he’s one of the most dangerous welterweights. All the finishes he had, he has so many records, I finished the finisher so I feel like I deserve something ahead of me and Gilbert’s the only one that’s available, so that’s why I want to fight him.”
Burns is coming off of a thrilling battle against undefeated contender Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 273, which ended with Chimaev claiming a unanimous decision win. Burns’ victory in the fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 535 was viewed by some as a moral victory.
Count Neal among those impressed by Burns’ performance.
” It was thrilling, it was enjoyable. He showed that Khamzat is beatable because Khamzat had this aura of invincibility around him. Gilbert showed that he held the line, and even though he lost, he didn’t let Khamzat walk through him.”
