DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Sanford MMA coach Henri Hooft thinks Gilbert Burns has a lot more to give despite falling short in his UFC title pursuit.
Since moving up to 170 pounds, Burns (19-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) has been on a tear, picking up back-to-back “Performance of the Night” bonuses against former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and former title challenger Demian Maia en route to a title shot.
Burns faced off against his then teammate, welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, in the UFC 258 main event this past February. He found success early by dropping Usman, but the champ weathered the storm and TKO’d Burns in Round 2.
Undeterred, Burns is right back on the horse and will take on former two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson at UFC 264 in July. Hooft is no stranger to Thompson’s game having helped Vicente Luque prepare for him at UFC 244, but a tough Luque was essentially outmatched.
So having already deciphered a game plan for Thompson (16-4-1 MMA, 11-4-1 UFC), Hooft knows the kind of challenge Burns is in for but is confident that “Durinho” has the tools to beat him.
“It’s very hard to prepare for Stephen Thompson,” Hooft told MMA Junkie. “We already fought him once with Vicente Luque, who’s a really good striker, but Vicente learned a lot in that fight. It’s a very difficult style. He’s technically very, very skilled. He has good movement, very good eyes, but some fights he’s a little less. You saw that against Pettis; you saw it against Tyron Woodley. If he trained good and he’s well prepared, we have a hell of a fight. If not, Gilbert can knock him out, he can choke him out, he can do it all.”
In Burns’ first title shot of his career, Hooft wasn’t in his corner as he opted to sit out having coached both Burns and Usman for years at Sanford MMA. This time, Hooft will be back in Burns’ corner. He still sees a lot of potential in the dangerous Brazilian, and Hooft said that’s evident in Burns’ willingness to fight anyone.
“This time I will be there. It’ll be a very hard fight, but Gilbert is also one of the hardest working guys in my gym,” Hooft said. “He’ll be ready to fight. Maybe some people think he lost to Kamaru and we’ve seen the best of him, but I don’t think so. I think Gilbert is very motivated and still ready to climb that ladder and to fight Stephen Thompson, that a lot of people don’t want to fight, but Gilbert wants to fight everybody, so I’m happy.”
Coach Henri Hooft confident he and Gilbert Burns can solve ‘Wonderboy’ puzzle at UFC 264