Gilbert Burns lost to Khamzat Chimaev by unanimous decision in their welterweight fight in April of last year, but the former lightweight gave the star a very hard fight and even managed to drop him, and he’s come away from that experience doubting whether ‘Borz’ can continue his unbeaten run if he goes up against the middleweight division’s best strikers.
“I took him down, imagine what ‘Poatan’ (middleweight champion Alex Pereira) can do,” Burns said on the Super Lutas show. “If I was able to knock him down, [Pereira’s] hands must be so heavy. I took him down and he is still talk trash to those guys. ‘Poatan’s’ hands are huge, ‘Borrachinha’s’ (Paulo Costa’s) hands are huge.”
Burns has also questioned Chimaev’s mentality, noting that he appears to have changed during his rapid rise to stardom in the UFC, and not in a way that appeals to the former welterweight title contender.
“It’s not that he lost himself,” Burns said. “It’s that he couldn’t find himself. Things happened too fast for him. Three fights in and he was already a star. At first, I really liked him. He would call people out and keep fighting. Then he broke character. He’s unwilling to make weight, he causes trouble. I like the guy who would call anyone out. Who would take any fight.”
Burns would like a rematch between the two, but for now he’s scheduled to fight Neil Magny at UFC 283 later this month, while Chimaev doesn’t currently have a fight booked, but has been entertaining the possibility of fighting everyone from Colby Covington at welterweight to Alex Pereira at middleweight.
