- Gilbert Burns has opened up about his training camp for the Khamzat Chimaev fight
- Burns revealed how Kamaru Usman has been helping him
- “Durinho” has sent a message to Chimaev
Gilbert Burns is gearing up for his highly-anticipated welterweight clash with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 273 this weekend. The Brazilian is looking forward to securing a big win and he has been taking pointers from the biggest name in the division as well–Kamaru Usman.
The champ is there to help
Burns is well aware that Chimaev is coming in with a tremendous size advantage. To help him prep up, he brought in bigger guys as sparring partners. More importantly, he got the reigning champion Usman on his side giving him “a lot of advice.”
“I spar with a couple of middleweights, with a lot of different guys,” Burns told TMZ Sports. “I have a lot of high-level guys. Kamaru Usman came a couple of days to help out.”
“He was helping me a couple of times, not training with me but kinda coaching, kind of be on the side giving me a lot of advice, a lot of things on let’s say my last three or four sparrings he was there,” he continued. “[He has] Very high IQ and very good advice. It was good to have him around.”
No beef with Usman
Earlier last year, Burns failed to dethrone Usman and got TKO’d in the third round. He still hopes to get another shot at the belt but unlike other contenders, “Durinho” doesn’t hold grudges with Usman.
“The guy beat me. Congratulations!,” Burns said of Usman. “I don’t have that personal thing. For sure, IU want to be a champion but I’m not after Kamaru, I’m after the title. I want to become the best. I don’t have no beef, nothing personal, no grudge, nothing against Kamaru.”
“Merry Christmas Khamzat!”
Weight-cutting used to be some what of a dilemma for Burns in the past. Now, he is certain Chimaev is the one dealing with the difficulties of making weight leading up to their fight.
“As big as you are, Merry Christmas brother you gotta cut more weight than me you know. I used to cut a lot of weight, it’s not funny sometimes that hurts your performance. He’s very big. I know I was very big at lightweight too that’s why I came up [to welterweight]. Merry Christmas brother! Go for the sauna, I’m not doing much sauna this time.”
Nothing is concrete at the moment but the winner of Burns vs. Chimaev will surely take a step closer to title contention.
