Gilbert Burns: The young hopes of the UFC will raise the sport to a higher level

• UFC

Gilbert Burns believes that young fighters are the future of the sport and that they will raise this sport to a higher level. There are many good young fighters, but Burns touched on some of the best in his opinion. Burns is convinced that MMA is developing in the right direction and that it has not yet reached its peak.

He talked about the biggest young hopes of MMA and had only words of praise

“I think so — in a few years, yes,” Burns said when asked if he sees Garry holding the UFC welterweight title one day (H/T MMA Fighting).

“He’s a great kid, 25 years old. This kid is a badass. Before the fight, he said he would do all that — he pretty much called the entire fight beforehand, and pulled it off”. “I think Shavkat (Rakhmonov) is really good, too,” Burns continued.

“There’s also Jack Della Maddalena, a tough kid who’s coming up. There’s this Venezuelan kid, Michael Morales, an undefeated kid. Gabriel Bonfim too, a nasty kid. There’s new blood coming”. “(Stephen Thompson) ‘Wonderboy’ needs to pay attention,” Gilbert Burns warned.

“Older fighters need to pay attention. Neil Magny just lost badly. They need to reinvent themselves otherwise it won’t be good for them, brother. It is logical that MMA, like any sport, is developing, but Burns thinks that it has yet to reach its peak.

It is normal that he and other great sports legends had worse conditions for training, but sport was not as popular as it is today. But would today's champions so easily beat former champions from 20 years ago? “…I’ve been knocked out, TKO’d, knocked down, but there were many fights where I wasn’t any (of those),” Gilbert Burns continued.

I have good jiu-jitsu and I can use that too. I’m healthy, I’m fine, and I’m hungry to fight. I’ll only leave (MMA) if I lose three or four in a row and badly, getting knocked out. Then, I’m out. But I’m fighting.

If I’m still doing it, I’ll keep doing it for years. “I train with all of those guys. I just trained with Kamaru (Usman), and did some positions with Ian Garry. When Shavkat and all of these guys come here, I train with all of them.

I can fight at the highest level. When I start getting smashed and no longer enjoying training, when I’m too tired for this, then it’s time. But I’m hungry to train now, man. I’m like a maniac now for not being able to train because of my shoulder”.

as quoted by lowkickmma.