Gilbert Burns had a plan for Khamzat Chimaev: make him tired. Chimaev had a simpler plan: end it early.
“"For sure he's a better wrestler, you can say that. But the heart and the cardio, I think I can be in front of him. That's my goal: to frustrate him, get my good entrances, get him freaking tired."”
The former UFC middleweight champion defeated the retired former welterweight title challenger by technical fall, 15-4, in the co-main event of RAF 13 on September 18 at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Florida. Forty-seven seconds into the second period, Chimaev's blast double takedown pushed him past the 10-point mercy rule, and the rematch of their 2022 classic was over.
It was not the outcome Burns had envisioned. The 40-year-old Brazilian, who retired from MMA in April, had been candid about the matchup going in. "For sure he's a better wrestler, you can say that," Burns told MMA Junkie before the event. "He's competed many more times than me. He's a bigger guy, but the heart and the cardio, I think I can be in front of him. That's my goal: to frustrate him, get my good entrances, get him freaking tired. That's my goal. Get him freaking tired, look at him, and be like, 'I know what you're feeling. Let's go.' The way I look back at our fight, and the Strickland fight, he hates to get tired."
To Burns's credit, he made it more competitive than most expected, putting four points on the board against a three-time Swedish national freestyle wrestling champion. But "Borz" controlled the terms from the opening exchange, and the result was never seriously in doubt. The win moved Chimaev to 3-0 in Real American Freestyle, following his 94-second pinfall of Tyron Woodley in a previous appearance.
The night wasn't over for Chimaev when the whistle blew. In his post-match speech, he called out RAF's cruiserweight crossover champion Colby Covington — who later that evening defended his belt against Belal Muhammad with a 10-0 technical fall in the main event. "He has the belt, and I need to beat the best," Chimaev said.
The wrestling rematch was a sequel to one of MMA's great fights: Chimaev's unanimous decision win over Burns at UFC 273 in April 2022, a Fight of the Year contender. Chimaev, 32, has since lost his UFC middleweight title, dropping a split decision to Sean Strickland at UFC 328 in May. But on the mats, against a 40-year-old game opponent moving up a weight class into his world, the cardio question Burns wanted answered got its answer — emphatically.
