Gilbert Burns originally planned for his most recent fight to be the first of three before calling time on his career.
After a knockout defeat to Mike Malott, he decided to retire at the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, over the weekend.
Burns already has a plan for what comes next. He’s looking to stay in the sport by moving into management, helping fighters navigate their careers.
But as he recently shared, if things had gone differently against Malott, he might have put those plans on hold for a bit longer.
Burns had been confident going into the fight with Malott, believing he still had enough to compete at a high level. Speaking to MMA Fighting, he admitted he never saw Malott as one of the division’s top names, despite respecting his abilities.
Burns had intended to keep fighting until this result made him question whether it was still worth pursuing. The original plan included two more fights, one of which would have taken place in front of his home crowd in Brazil.
“If I was winning, I was going to call out Colby [Covington] for International Fight Week. I had a whole plan,” he said. “With a win, if I go out there and I beat this guy and I do a big callout for International Fight Week, then it makes sense. Then I think the UFC would give the Colby fight to me.
“Then after the Colby fight, then maybe the last one I do a retirement fight in Brazil. That was my plan. If everything went my way, it would be Colby Covington on International Fight Week and then it would be Daniel Rodriguez or Kevin Holland or Leon Edwards, retirement fight in Brazil. That’s what was going through my mind.”
Before facing Malott, Burns’ losses came against top-level competition like Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena – both of whom went on to become champions – as well as Sean Brady and Michael Morales.
Losing to someone not yet established at that level made him feel it was time to step away from fighting by his own choice.
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