The welterweight division faces new adversity in the form of Khamzat “Borz” Chimaev, ready to shock the world against rank 3 ex-title contender Gilbert “Durinho” Burns on the 9th of April at UFC 273. Jacksonville, Florida will bear witness to the unmatched wrestling prowess of Chimaev and the serpentine Jiu Jitsu skills of Burns.
The 35 year old Gilbert Burns has a record of 20 wins and 4 losses and is coming off a loss to the current Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman. Despite that he bounced back into form stronger and harder than ever expected, taking out Stephen Thompson to a decision win earlier in July 2021.
Burns has long proven his well-rounded ability to adapt new skills alongside his specialization in jiu-jitsu, but also poses a real threat in raw explosive knockout power. There’s a lot of speculation over how well Khamzat’s bear style wrestling and 11 inch reach advantage will stand up against Durinho.
On the other hand Khamzat, 27 years old, the rising star of Chechnya and Sweden, solidifies his place as a grappling and wrestling champion within the country and has been ready to prove his worth internationally against the toughest of challenges. We can consistently see his improvement and progress on his Youtube and the BlockAsset channel too.
Since Borz joined the UFC professionally he’s maintained an undefeated 10 game streak.
The Swedish wrestler has “smeshed” all his competition so far with four straight “Performance Of The Night” awards to back his rise to fame and power. Furthermore Chimaev has been calling out the current Middleweight Champion Israel “the Last Stylebender” Adesanya with desires of finishing him within the first round. It wouldn’t be a far stretch to expect Khamzat to get his first title shot after taking out a much more experienced and well rounded fighter in Gilbert Burns.
However Burns too, is still a staunch contender for another title shot with Usman for the Welterweight Champion belt, bringing down striking titans such as Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia and Gunnar Nelson and furthermore silencing any doubters with a win over Stephen Thompson earlier last year. The only loss Durinho faced in the last four years was at the hands of the champ himself, Kamaru, in their previous title encounter and rest assured that a rematch is still highly desired by the Brazilian.
Similarly Borz has desired better opponents and more fights since his recovery from covid last year going as far as to drag his opponent (Li Jingliang) during their previous encounter towards Dana White’s direction and yelling from the octagon that he will “fight everybody, fight Brock Lesnar, I don’t care who it is…” told Dana during an interview.
With demands such as that, a flawless record and more wins in the UFC than hits taken (only two significant strikes against Chimaev in a total of 10 matches), there’s still a tremendous amount that the young star wants to prove to all the fans, organizers and followers.
We know who we’re backing though. Team RDX is part of the wolfpack. Looking forward to Borz extending that win streak and cementing himself as the real threat and contender for the title. But first – he must face a very dangerous and experienced Durinho.
