UFC welterweight Gilbert Burns doesn’t want a ‘dream’ matchup for his return fight, he wants a second clash with his ‘nightmare’ opponent.
After suffering back-to-back defeats to Jack Della Maddalena and Belal Muhammad, fan-favorite welterweight Gilbert Burns is looking to return to the win column, and there’s one ‘nightmare’ scenario that could see him bounce back in a big way.
Gilbert Burns wants to return around August after JDM loss
Following his dramatic third-round loss to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 299 back in March, welterweight star Gilbert Burns recently told The Schmo that he ideally wants to return in the summer.
“Next for me, I’m taking a little time off,” said the former UFC title challenger, before adding “For me, I’m looking forward to come back in August, that’s a good date for me.”
“We’ll see whoever, I’m not pick and choose, I’m in a position that I lost two back-to-back so, I’m relaxed, getting better and whoever they say the name on the contract I’m going to sign but August I’m looking forward to coming back.”
Gilbert Burns open to rematching former champ Kamaru Usman
Speaking on the latest episode of the Show Me The Money podcast, Burns was asked in an ideal world, where he held enough leverage to pick and choose his next opponent, who would he like to return against?
Never one to shy away from top-level competition, ‘Durinho’ said that he’d love to rematch friend and teammate Kamaru Usman, with the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ having defeated Burns by third-round TKO back in 2021 for the welterweight title.
“I like it – every rematch is always welcome and that’s a good one. There’s not a lot of guys in the top 5 available right now like Shavkat is fighting Jack, I think that’s what we heard from the UFC, Leon Edwards is fighting Belal Muhammad, and the other guy is Kamaru.”
“I don’t know if he would do it, but I would love to do that fight,” said Burns, before adding that getting that one back against a fighter like Usman could see him re-enter the top 5 of the welterweight division.
“Kamaru, I see that fight like way bigger with the rematch and a whole story behind it, for sure I’d approach it differently. You know I was very emotional on my first title fight; I lost the opportunity when I got COVID, and then was hoping to keep the opportunity in training and got very emotional.”
Burns vowed not to make “dumb mistakes” again, should that rematch come to fruition later in the year, with neither Burns nor Usman having their next bout officially booked.
“Kamaru is a very intelligent fighter, back then he was ‘the guy’ so yeah it would be an amazing fight – if I could pick, that would be my pick for my next fight.”
Kamaru Usman also wants to take some well-deserved time off
Speaking with Paul Felder and Karyn Bryant on UFC Live last month, Usman said that he “would like to know myself” whether he is now a fully-fledged middleweight or is set to return to welterweight.
“I never thought that I would be in this position, I never thought I would just have had a body of work to the point where I can kind of sit back a little bit and let things unfold,” said the former champion.
“For a long, long time I was like ‘I need to get there, I need to be that guy, I need to be champion’ and now I’m in a position where I don’t have to, I definitely want to but I’m taking time to see how things unfold because right now that division is kind of clouded.”
“I’m taking some time, letting some things heal, and plot my next move,” teased the 36-year-old star.
With both Burns and Usman wanting to take some well-deserved time away from the sport to allow their bodies to recover, an August rematch could very well be on the cards – providing Usman returns to welterweight, having made his middleweight debut against Chimaev in his last bout.