A welterweight fight between Gilbert Burns and Neil Magny has been targeted for the UFC 283 event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 21st.
Burns earned himself a title shot at 170lbs early last year after amassing a six-fight winning streak that had seen him beat the likes of Gunnar Nelson, Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley, but was then TKO’d by Kamaru Usman.
The 36-year-old bounced back with a win on the scorecards against Stephen Thompson and then went on to give Khamzat Chimaev a very tough fight back in April of last year, though he ultimately lost via unanimous decision to the rising star.
All of which leaves Burns ranked at No.5 in the division heading into his next fight with the 35-year-old Magny, who is coming off a submission win over Daniel Rodriguez just a couple of weeks ago.
That leaves Magny 3-2 in his last five fights, having also beaten Geoff Neal and Max Griffin, while his losses came against Michael Chiesa and Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Burns vs. Magny would join a UFC 283 card that is set to be headlined by a lightweight title showdown between newly crowned champion Islam Makhachev and featherweight titleholder Alexander Volkanovski, while Yair Rodriguez fights Josh Emmett in an interim featherweight title belt in the co-main event.
