Islam Makhachev will fight Belal Muhammad "next", says UFC welterweight elite in brutally honest prediction

According to a former title challenger for the UFC's 170-pound belt, Islam Makhachev could move up to pursue welterweight gold sooner rather than later.

On the Show Me The Money podcast, featuring Renato Moicano, Gilbert Burns discussed some of the fallout from UFC 311.

One of the big takeaways was Islam Makhachev's historic fourth consecutive UFC lightweight title defense against Burns' co-host Moicano. As is customary in the combat sports world, people invariably wonder what will be next for a fighter coming off of a big win. Amid a back-and-forth conversation about that topic during the show with one of his co-hosts Matty Betss, Burns said:

"I don't know. I have a feeling that they try to move up. I have a feeling... I don't think; I don't know. I think they might do it next. No even wait so much for Belal [Muhammad] and Shavkat [Rakhmonov], you know... I don't think they're not even going to wait that much, yeah... I think so, for sure he will fight Belal."

"I think Belal doesn't want to fight him but I think he [Makhachev] don't care... I would take Islam but the fight that I want for, if I could pick, I would want to do the Charles [Oliveira] fight again."

Check out Gilbert Burns' thoughts on a possible Islam Makhachev vs. Belal Muhammad fight below (56:45):

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Islam Makhachev has an intriguing plan in place per his manager

Though this may be disappointing to Burns, Islam Makhachev will reportedly not be fighting Charles Oliveira in a rematch next according to the UFC lightweight champion's manager. Ali Abdelaziz took to his personal X platform to also impart that the UFC is not planning for a rematch with Arman Tsarukyan or a clash with featherweight kingpin Ilia Topuria as Makhachev's next assignment.

The 33-year-old's next assignment was not expressly stated by Abdelaziz, but there was a certain tantalizing vagueness to his post that got many talking. In a follow-up post, Abdelaziz mentioned another one of his clients Beneil Dariush calling out Dustin Poirier for a fight.

This transpired after Dariush was left without an opponent for UFC 311 when his initial adversary Renato Moicano was called up for the main event vacancy left by Arman Tsarukyan. In the follow-up post despite Dariush vs. Poirier not being official, Abdelaziz stated:

"If @Justin_Gaethje beats [Dan] Hooker he can be easily next. If @beneildariush beats [Dustin] Poirier he can also be next. These would be 2 new names that Islam hasn't fought yet."