At 39-years-old it would be easy for Gilbert Burns to just call it quits after suffering four losses in a row, but ahead of his headlining fight against Mike Malott on Saturday night he’s explained how he came to the decision to continue competing.
“[I told all the coaches] I still think I can do this. I still want to do this,” Burns told MMAfighting.com. “I don’t need to do this. I’m set but I want to do this. I still believe it. So let’s get back to sparring, let’s get back to training. Before you get a date, let’s get back to sparring, let’s grapple a lot, let’s wrestle a lot. You want to get in good conditioning, great shape and that’s what I did. As I was sparring, I got back to having fun a little bit. Not just sparring for the fight but sparring a little bit before and having fun with this, grappling and everything and then it got to a point where I still had fun doing this. Not just pressure ‘I’ve got to win!’ No, honestly, the way I’m going into this fight, I’m way more confident but all the pressure is on freaking Mike Malott.
“I’m telling you. I’m 40 this year. I had a good career already. I’m going to Canada. I’m going to have fun. I’m going to go out there to do my thing. For sure, I want to win. For sure it’s a must-win but I’m not bringing all that heavy baggage that I’ve got to win. No, I’m going out there to do my best, showcase my skills. I do believe it’s a good matchup. It’s nothing easy but it is a good matchup and I’m putting all the pressure on this guy.”
And Burns is also keen to stress that though his recent record doesn’t look good, the reality is that he was only getting beat by the very best the welterweight division has to offer.
“The Belal [Muhammad] fight, I got injured. No problem, I lost, Belal did his thing, became a champion right after that. Lost to Jack [Della Maddalena], was doing good for freaking 14 minutes until I ate a knee, got knocked out. Jack became a champion. Sean Brady, top 5. Michael Morales, top 5.
“These guys are the highest level in the division. So I’ve been doing a lot of good things too but the results weren’t there.”
