LAS VEGAS — Gilbert Burns has tested his world class jiu-jitsu against the UFC welterweight champion and he knows how effective it can be.
The UFC welterweight title challenger takes on former teammate and current 170-pound champion Kamaru Usman on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 258. Burns (19-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) trained for many years with Usman under the tutelage of Henry Hooft until spring of 2020, once it became clear Burns would soon earn a welterweight title shot.
Usman switched training camps and went to Colorado to train with Trevor Wittman to avoid sharing gyms, training partners, and coaches with his future foe.
Having sparred “over 200 rounds” with Usman, Burns is confident he can submit Usman, and says the champ knows it as well.
“I know I can submit him anytime, anywhere, in the bottom, in the top, anywhere,” said Burns at the UFC 258 media day. “He knows I can submit him. He might watch out for this because he knows. He said, ‘Oh people know who’s going to win,’ but he knows too, he knows.”
It’s an odd situation to be fighting a former teammate, but both men have been respectful and have kept it professional so far in the buildup to UFC 258. Burns would normally say there isn’t much of an advantage when teammates are fighting each other, but in this case he feels he has a slight edge.
“He can say, ‘I beat him a couple of rounds,’ but I can say I beat him a couple of rounds too,” Burns explained. “So it’s kind of very even.
“The thing that I believe is the teammates. Because he left the team, all the teammates that helped me prepare for him, they know him very good. So they’re like, ‘He does this thing very well, watch out. Oh, you’re going to hit him with that one.’ So that feedback from the teammates was very good, from the coaches as well. If it was just me and Kamaru, it’d be just 50/50. The difference with the teammates and coaches, yeah that gives me a little advantage I think.”
Burns feels he knows very well who Usman is as a fighter, but admits his work with Wittman could be adding to Usman’s game. Burns expects a few differences, but no major changes from Usman.
“I believe he’s going to come with little new things, (but) not a lot of things,” Burns said. “Trevor Wittman is known as a good coach. I believe more as a boxing stance, so his hands might be a little shaper, but the plan is still the same. I’m going to go to the octagon and I just don’t want to hold him and buy time. I want to finish him. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m going to knock him out or submit him.”
Gilbert Burns: Kamaru Usman ‘knows I can submit him’ at UFC 258