Taking this moment to apologize to @GamebredFighter
and his team @mikebrownmma
@AmericanTopTeam
pic.twitter.com/jNZva97ugO— GILBERT BURNS DURINHO (@GilbertDurinho)
April 11, 2023
Gilbert
Burns has walked back his claim that Jorge
Masvidal was greasing during their UFC 287 matchup.
At Saturday’s post-fight press conference, “Durinho” said that
Masvidal was especially slippery, which made grappling more
difficult than usual. He then insinuated that his opponent might
have applied lotion multiple times on Saturday before their co-main
event bout.
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“I know those old tricks those guys do. You know what they do? They
wake up on [Saturday] and they take the first shower and they put a
lot of lotion on the body,” Burns said at the press conference.
“The skin absorbs the lotion, and then after three hours, you do it
again, and then after you do it again, and then after you do it
again, and your body absorbs. Whenever you start sweating a lot,
[the lotion comes out]. For sure he did that, 100 percent he did.
I’m telling you.”
Masvidal denied the allegation on
”The MMA Hour” on Monday saying, “I’ve never greased, I’ve
never been caught for cheating or anything.” Even if Burns did feel
like he was at a disadvantage, it didn’t seem to matter, as he
earned a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph in what turned out to
be Masvidal’s final MMA bout.
On Tuesday, Burns released a video apologizing for making the claim
in the first place.
“I just would like to take a moment to apologize to Jorge
‘Gamebred’ Masvidal and his team at ATT on the things I said after
the fight at the press-fight conference at UFC 287,” Burns said. “I
said that he passed lotion and this and that, and it was too much.
I can’t prove that, and I would like to apologize to send my
apologies to Jorge and his team and take everything that I
said.
“I hope that he accepts my apologies and I think what I did was
wrong. I have no proof that he did that. I want to take nothing
away from him. That guy is a warrior, 52 professional fights. I
hope that he has a good retirement and I hope he accepts my
apology.”