Pic: Gilbert Burns celebrates birthday with negative coronavirus test — ‘I’m going for the belt!’

Gilbert Burns is back in business.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight No. 1 contender, who was booted from his Kamaru Usman title fight at UFC 251 earlier this month in Abu Dhabi, recently tested negative for coronavirus and appears to be medically cleared to return.

In his absence, the promotion was forced to pay Jorge Masvidal to step in on super short notice. “Gamebred” gave it his best effort, but ultimately fell to “The Nigerian Nightmare” after five rounds of pay-per-view (PPV) action.

As for Burns (19-3), he’s coming off six straight wins, including last May’s beatdown of Tyron Woodley in Las Vegas. “Durinho” turned 34 today and is without question in the prime of his welterweight career.

No official word yet on when the promotion will book Usman vs. Burns but it would not be surprising to see their title fight headline an end-of-year card, or perhaps something in first quarter 2021.