UFC
290 is in the running for the best event of 2023, but one of
the most memorable moments didn’t happen inside the cage.
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Gilbert
Burns’ celebration when countryman Alexandre
Pantoja captured the flyweight championship caught the
attention of the MMA community. The emotional reaction might have
been unusual to an outsider, considering that Burns trains at Kill
Cliff FC, a natural rival of Pantoja’s training home at American
Top Team.
“One day a friend in common, Tiago, said ‘I must introduce you to
Pantoja, you guys are soul brothers’ and that’s exactly what
happened,” Burns said. “After we got to know each other, we became
really close, our wives started to be close friends, our two sons,
about the same age, started to be best friends. My emotion came not
only from being close, but from knowing exactly all the hard times
he and Gabriela passed through. Actually, we both live our lives
for the same dream and seeing a close friend achieving his goal is
an emotion difficult to describe.
What [surprised me] is how people were curious about that. It
should be normal for someone to be happy with the victory a friend,
neighbor, or countryman like me, Charles [Oliveira] and Glover
[Teixeira] have earned. We all have similar stories.”
Burns also praised Julianna
Pena and Jorge
Masvidal for their kindness that night.
“She [Pena] was really nice to us. I asked her to put Pantoja’s
wife and kid in the two seats reserved for Masvidal and his
manager, and she accepted on one condition: They should leave
during the main event because Yair was very close to her and she
didn’t want to be bothered. Of course we accepted the deal,” Burns
said. “The only problem is that when the referee was going to start
the fight Masvidal arrived. I told him it was Pantoja’s family and
he said, no problem. From this moment on, the place got really
tight, but thanks to Masvidal’s and Juliana’s kindness, Pantoja´s
son were able to see their dad being crowned UFC champion up close.
I just have to thank them.”
Burns provided some interesting details about his tears in the
moment of Bruce Buffer’s announcement.
“The fight was a war, but me and Glover were pretty sure Pantoja
won three or four rounds. But when Buffer started to announce and
the first judge gave a 49-46 scorecard to Moreno, I just thought,
‘I can’t believe the kid will be robbed for all his hard work.’
That’s why I exploded and got so emotional after Bruce Buffer said,
‘And new.’”
Burns himself hasn’t competed since UFC 288, when he suffered a
unanimous decision loss to Belal
Muhammad. He shared details about the multiple injuries he
suffered in that five-round affair.
I had a third degree acromioclavicular (shoulder) injury. I tore my
trapezius, deltoid and had a strain in the C4 and C5 vertebrae in
my spine. But my doctor decided to not do surgery,” he said. “We
are working with stem cells and physiotherapy. I did the first
application three weeks ago and I got great results. On Wednesday
I’m going to do the second application of stem cells.”
Burns is already targeting a return to action in December.
“I would love to fight in November in Brazil, but that wouldn’t be
possible. I had three fights in 2023. Some of the Top 5 didn’t even
fight in 2023 yet. I hope that the division changes in the coming
months, so that I can come back against a challenger that makes
sense,” Burns said.
“I saw [Georges St.
Pierre] saying that he would like to have a [grappling match]
in December. That fight would be great. And I already made myself
available.”