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Events · UFC 288: Sterling vs. Cejudo · Belal Muhammad vs Gilbert Burns
From the tape · 6 May 2023

Belal Muhammad vs Gilbert Burns

UFC 288: Sterling vs. Cejudo · Newark, New Jersey, USA
Result

Belal Muhammad beat Gilbert Burns

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
WelterweightCo-MainReferee · Keith Peterson

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner BelalMuhammad“Remember the Name”Roufusport · Chicago, Illinois
VSOn the tape
Blue corner GilbertBurns“Durinho”Kill Cliff FC · Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro
Welterweight5 rounds6 May 2023
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 4-fight win streak.
  • Comes in on a 2-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 3 of 13 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 8 of 15 UFC wins.
24-6
Record
22-10
−2 yr34
Age
36
+1″5' 11"
Height
5' 10"
+1″72″
Reach
71″
Orthodox
Stance
Orthodox
17
UFC bouts
+320
3/1323% of wins
Finishes
+30%8/1553% of wins
Roufusport
Gym
Kill Cliff FC
Chicago, Illinois
From
Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Belal Muhammad19 sig landed
HEAD47%9 of 29BODY47%9 of 9LEGS5%1 of 1
Gilbert Burns15 sig landed
HEAD47%7 of 22BODY20%3 of 4LEGS33%5 of 5
19 of 39
Sig.
strikes
15 of 31
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 19Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 15Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Muhammad firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Eric Colón10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Belal Muhammad18 sig landed
HEAD61%11 of 44BODY39%7 of 7LEGS0%0 landed
Gilbert Burns15 sig landed
HEAD40%6 of 18BODY0%0 landedLEGS60%9 of 10
18 of 51
Sig.
strikes
15 of 28
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 18Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 15Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Muhammad firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Eric Colón10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Belal Muhammad25 sig landed
HEAD80%20 of 53BODY20%5 of 6LEGS0%0 landed
Gilbert Burns14 sig landed
HEAD50%7 of 14BODY21%3 of 4LEGS29%4 of 4
25 of 59
Sig.
strikes
14 of 22
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 25Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 14Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Muhammad firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Eric Colón10–9
Round 45:00 of action
Belal Muhammad28 sig landed
HEAD64%18 of 44BODY36%10 of 10LEGS0%0 landed
Gilbert Burns16 sig landed
HEAD38%6 of 12BODY25%4 of 4LEGS38%6 of 7
28 of 54
Sig.
strikes
16 of 23
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 2
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 28Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 16Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Muhammad firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary9–10Eric Colón10–9
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Belal Muhammad42 sig landed
HEAD81%34 of 71BODY19%8 of 9LEGS0%0 landed
Gilbert Burns21 sig landed
HEAD43%9 of 30BODY14%3 of 4LEGS43%9 of 9
42 of 80
Sig.
strikes
21 of 43
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 42Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 21Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Muhammad firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Eric Colón9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Keith Peterson
Belal MuhammadGilbert Burns
Official totals — Belal Muhammad first
JudgeTotal
Michael Bell50–45
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide49–46
Eric Colón2.0 avg spread · 43% wide49–46

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 19 scored, Belal Muhammad first · unofficial

Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com50–45
Dominik Durniat ddreporter Tv50–45
Michael DeSantis MMASucka.com50–45
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com50–45
Jake Noecker The Scrap News50–45
Sheehan SevereMMA.com50–45
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com50–45
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com50–45
Chris De Santiago MiddleEasy.com50–45
Daniel Yanofsky The Sporting News50–45
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com50–45
Phil Murphy ESPN50–45
Shakiel Mahjouri CBS Sports49–46
Steve Duncan mma.uno49–46
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com49–46
Tyler Treese Sherdog.com49–46
MM AJunkie.com49–46
MM AMania.com49–46
Nick Baldwin theScore49–46

Fan vote · unofficial

50-45 Muhammad · 52%49-46 Muhammad · 21%48-47 Muhammad · 11%48-47 Burns · 4%

248 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Belal Muhammad

2.14takedowns / 15 min
2.14 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
2.04 / 15m
5.94 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
5.83 / 15m
36%
ACCURACY
35%
0.10 / 15m
SUB ATT
0.40 / 15m

Gilbert Burns

2.04takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (4.97 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Welterweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Belal Muhammad↑ +2.5pp
open 39.3%close 41.8%
Gilbert Burns↓ −2.5pp
open 60.7%close 58.2%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Belal Muhammad opened at 39.3% and closed at 41.8% (+2.5pp), with Gilbert Burns moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Belal Muhammad14012939.3%41.8%+2.5pp
Gilbert Burns-180-15560.7%58.2%−2.5pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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