Jorge Masvidal will return to the Octagon for the first time in over a year when he goes up against Gilbert Burns in the co-main event of UFC 287 on April 8th in Miami, Florida.
The 38-year-old Masvidal’s last appearance came in March of last year when he went up against his former friend turned bitter rival Colby Covington, which saw him lose convincingly by unanimous decision.
That was ‘Gamebred’s’ third loss in a row after back-to-back defeats against Kamaru Usman, but it did nothing to dampen his ongoing feud with Covington, and instead only appeared to fuel the fire.
So much so in fact that just a few weeks later Masvidal was alleged to have tracked down Covington to a a restaurant in his native Miami and attacked him as he left the building, fracturing one of his teeth in the process.
Masvidal has since been charged with aggravated battery and is currently awaiting a trial that’s so far been postponed on several occasions.
Meanwhile the No.11 ranked Masvidal will now go up against the 5th ranked Burns, who is coming off a first round submission win over Neil Magny at the UFC’s first event of 2023 just a week ago.
Prior to that the 36-year-old former title challenger had gone up against rising star Khamzat Chimaev and had given him his toughest fight to date, but ultimately lost by unanimous decision.
Masvidal vs. Burns serves as the co-main event for a UFC 287 event that will be headlined by a middleweight title rematch between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya.