Gilbert Burns planned for his recent fight to be the first of three that would wrap up his career.
Following a knockout loss to Mike Malott, Burns retired at the Canada Life Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba this past weekend.
Burns has already set his sights on his next goal as he intends to transition into the business side of the sport by becoming a manager.
However, if his recent outing had gone to plan, this career switch would’ve been put on the backburner, as ‘Durinho’ recently revealed.
Is Gilbert Burns retiring the right call?
The former welterweight title challenger suffered his fifth loss in a row at UFC Winnipeg.
Gilbert Burns wanted to fight Colby Covington and retire in Brazil before Mike Malott loss
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Gilbert Burns said that he was confident he’d beat Mike Malott and that while he respects him, he doesn’t believe he’s at the “highest level”.
Suffering this recent loss immediately brought ‘Durinho’ to the conclusion that he doesn’t want to continue if he’s no longer competitive with the best guys in the world.
As a result, Burns canceled his original retirement plans, which included two more fights, one of which would’ve been his last dance in front of his home fans.
“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.”
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He may have ended his career on a five-fight skid but as Burns pointed out, he was still facing the top guys in his weight class.
Before this past weekend, the former title challenger’s losing streak consisted of defeats to Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena, who both went on to become champions, and top contenders in Sean Brady and Michael Morales.
Losing to Malott, who hasn’t reached the same heights as those names as of yet, is where Burns decided that it was best to say goodbye on his own terms.
“In the back of my head I was thinking if I can’t beat Mike Malott, if I lose, if I got finished, I’m done.”
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