MIAMI – The odds may look stacked against Gilbert Burns at RAF 13, but the Brazilian believes there's a path to victory.
Burns, a former UFC title challenger who retired in May, takes on ex-UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev in a freestyle wrestling match in the co-main event of Friday's RAF 13 at the Watsco Center. Burns and Chimaev have already competed against each other in the UFC, with Chimaev winning a Fight of the Year contender at UFC 273 in April 2022. This time around, Burns goes into Chimaev's world – wrestling – and moves up a weight class to take on the much bigger man.
There may be a lot stacked against "Durinho," but not everything, he said.
"For sure he's a better wrestler, you can say that," Burns told MMA Junkie. "He's
competed many more times than me. He's a bigger guy, but the heart and the cardio, I think I can be in front of him. That's my goal: to frustrate him, get my good entrances, get him freaking tired. That's my goal. Get him freaking tired, look at him, and be like, 'I know what you're feeling. Let's go.' The way I look back at our fight, and the Strickland fight, he hates to get tired. That's what I think. My goal is to try to put him there and see how he feels."
Burns, 40, believes he can break Chimaev, 32, and he sees a tendency of gassing when competition gets tough. He thinks part of Chimaev's lore so far in RAF has been thanks to his opposition, which hasn't pushed the pace on him.
"He looks good against Dillon Danis, before the brawl," Burns said analyzing Chimaev's RAF run. "Against Tyron Woodley, I liked what he did in the beginning, but I still needed a little more hustle. I definitely think I can push him, not a little bit, but a lot more than those guys. That's what I think. Especially Woodley, you can't let him get a body lock. He's very strong, very long. I know there are a couple of things they did wrong that I'm not going to do. Dillon Danis tried to guillotine him. No, we're going to wrestle. I like it. We're going to his territory, up a division. Yeah, keep the 'Durinho' name alive."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Gilbert Burns says he can break Khamzat Chimaev at RAF 13: 'He hates to get tired'
