Gilbert Burns gave a tremendous account of himself on Saturday night in a three-round war with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 273 that’s already been touted as a potential ‘Fight of The Year’ candidate, but after losing out by unanimous decision he’s now calling for a rematch, and this time he wants it to be five-rounds.
“When they offered me this fight, I asked for five rounds,” Burns told TSN. “They sent me the contract and I fought with Ali [Abdelaziz]. I was like, ‘F—k, I don’t want these three rounds. I want five rounds.’ [Abdelaziz said] ‘Oh, but they have these two title fights.’ And I said, ‘I don’t care, make another one. I want five rounds.’ We went back and forth with the UFC and it ended up being three rounds. The fight was crazy entertaining, but I just think if it was five rounds, it would be way more entertaining.”
That being said, Burns does acknowledge that Chimaev will now have other fish to fry in the short-term, but in the not-so-distant future he’s eager to ensure that they will fight again.
“The way I see it too, is that we’re not done,” Burns said. “I don’t believe we’re not done. For sure he moves forward in the rankings and they want to make that Colby fight. But the way I see it, I’m not afraid to fight anyone in this division. Time and time again, I’ve proved it. Short notice, asking to fight at middleweight, fighting these guys…I just want one thing back from Khamzat. I want the courtesy.
“I was No. 2 and I fought No. 11. I want a rematch with Khamzat. Now that he’s moving forward, we’ll see. If he beats Colby, he’s going to fight Kamaru and I just want my rematch in the next three fights. In his next three fights, I want my rematch. I believe we’re not done. I believe we gotta go more rounds and one guy needs to get the finish. It’s just that thing that those couple fights should be five rounds. You know those fights that [you say], ‘Man, it should’ve been more rounds in there’. I think we kind of missed out a little bit on this fight.”
It remains to be seen whether that will come to fruition, but whatever the case, even in defeat Burns stock certainly raised significantly with his performance against Chimaev and that bodes well for his future in the promotion.
