Gilbert Burns is one of the best welterweight fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While he mainly stays out of any kind of controversy, one of Burns’ recent comments has sparked a huge debate amongst the fanbase. Recently, Durinho appeared for an interview with the Australian MMA outlet, “Submission Radio.” During the interview, the 36-year-old seemingly hinted that he was on steroids.
Burns was speaking about his training regiment since the end of 2022, leading up to his bout against Neil Magny at UFC 283. Afterward, Burns even went on to defeat the BMF champion Jorge Masvidal at UFC 287. Since his loss to Khamzat Chimaev, it seems like Burns has invested a lot of time into training his body and it has done wonders for him.
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However, as he was talking about his training, Burns said, “I changed a lot of bad habits since November (2022) I introduced a lot of stero… a lot of things to my training routine, to my lifestyle, and I feel great about it.”
It certainly seemed like Burns was about to say the word steroids and checked himself in time. However, as he is not a native English speaker, there may have been a language barrier as well. He is yet to fail a USADA drug test in his career, till now.
Gilbert Burns is a former UFC welterweight title contender
Gilbert Burns is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu maestro and implements his grappling into his fighting style seamlessly. He made his MMA debut in 2012 against Jose Salgado. Burns won his debut bout via submission. He won all of his first 7 bouts via finish and finally made his UFC debut on July 26, 2014. Although Burns started his MMA career in lightweight, for his UFC debut fight, Burns fought at welterweight.
However, in his very next fight, against Christos Giagos, Gilbert returned to lightweight. Fighting at lightweight in the UFC, Burns had a record of 7-2 in 9 fights. His bout against Michel Prazeres took place at a catchweight of 158 lbs after Michel missed weight. He lost to Rashid Magomedov and Dan Hooker at lightweight and seemed extremely drained after a hard weight cut.
After beating Mike Davis in April 2019, Burns moved up to welterweight for good and beat Alexey Kunchenko. He went on a 4-fight win streak where he beat the likes of Demian Maia, Tyron Woodley, and Gunnar Nelson. It earned him the first title shot of his career against his former teammate Kamaru Usman at UFC 258. Although he lost the bout, Burns came very close to winning it as he rocked Usman in the fight.
Since then, Burns has lost only 1 fight and won 3. He is set to fight Belal Muhammad at UFC 288 and it may earn him the next title shot if he beats Muhammad on May 6, 2023, in New Jersey.
