MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Gilbert Burns: Ilia Topuria KO'd 3 of My Teammates, Talks UFC 299 | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Luke Thomas sits down with Gilbert Burns ahead of his UFC 299 fight. What did Gilbert do to heal his shoulder? What does it mean to be fighting in Miami? What does he expect from Jack Della Maddalena? Gilbert discusses it all. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and joining me now for morning combat is a gentleman who will be on the main card of ufc 299 when he returns to action after a bit of a layoff when he takes on jack de la maddalena in miami a miami man himself it is of course gilbert burns hi gilbert how are you doing great doing great look thank you um how are we feeling what's what's the what's the hair plan for 299 what's it gonna be on that day we're gonna do some braids you're gonna it's gonna look nice you're gonna braid a little bit it's gonna be nice all right i look forward to seeing um hey let's back up a step right you're fighting a ufc 299 but you've been off since your fight to below muhammad the issue was a shoulder injury so my reading on this apparently is that you could have

had surgery you did not get it and instead you got stem cells did I get all that correct yes you did but by the doctor you know the doctor say you know what you should is he's the best you know because it was deltard injury AC joint I still had a trapezius muscle there. It was bad. But he said, but I don't want to. It's a surgery case. But you open to try a stem cell treatment, then we'll see.

I said, yes, I don't want to get the surgery. He said, let's do a stem cell right now. Don't do anything. Don't run. You just can't walk. But don't grab. You can't do anything for a month you just can't walk but don't grab don't you can't do anything for a month after a month you come back and they will see if it's getting a little bit

better you don't need the surgery so after a month it went back and they say oh it's really healing it's getting better steam cell is doing good work with you because we with a lot of people we don't work like that and then we put another steam cell right there and start getting so much better total we did three steam cell shots and after three months was kind of regenerated was getting better then we slowly start the pt so it was all the way to november until we get totally clear and get back to training so it was was a little hard path, but it was necessary, and then I could avoid the surgery. It's just a little – I have a difference right now.

The left shoulder is a little bit taller than the right shoulder. It's just a little thing, but I don't lose no movement, no random motion. It's all good. Okay, so a bunch of follow-ups. Because I am somebody who has actually had shoulder surgery, and I have complicated feelings about it. But the first thing I want to ask is for the stem cell,

you obviously have to do that in a different country, right? So what was that process like, like actually getting stem cells? So the process, I was going all the way to Columbia where they do, but back then you sadly still in the UFC. And I was talking to Jeff Nowinski and then he said a couple athletes

that went all the way to to Colombia to get this treatment they got caught with

I forgot what the substance is everyone's kind of using it for pain and everything I forgot but they said

because they put a stem cell and they put another steroid. It's not a steroid, but... A medical, sort of a medical steroid. All the grapplers are doing that help with the injury, the recovery. And he asked me not go there

because they kind of put extra things in the stem cells. And they had a company all the way in Salt Lake City they will give to the UFC. So that's what I did. I did heal my doctor here in South Florida. UFC bought the steam cell in Salt Lake City. They sent over here. They flew here.

In the morning, I put the steam cell. We did that three times. So UFC paid for this? Yes, UFC paid for this. Wow. Okay. Now, the last question I have about this is you had in a different interview said that the the tear you had in your ligaments it was

almost all the way gone not fully so the stem cells does it actually regrow the ligament back to where you yes yeah okay we go because it was tingling it was kind of. It was kind of like, it was almost ripped apart. But that's what we did. We did the steam cells and we waited a month before I do any PT, any something. I was holding my arm. I was doing anything. And then it was regenerating.

It was getting better. The ligament was kind of getting together. We did the second one and accelerated that a little bit. And eventually, PT, with everything and got all the ligaments back. Amazing. And as you said today, because the shoulder is a complicated joint, right? It can move in a bunch of different directions. You feel like you've got stability, strength. 100% I got everything.

100%. I can punch. The left hook is stronger. I don't know why. You might need it. All right. So you're a smart guy, Gilbert. Let's talk about Jack Dillon Madalena I

know you've done a bit of a scouting on him probably a significant amount um when you look at him what do you see I see a tough dude physically very strong young hungry a good boxing both stance he's orthodox the way you see, but he plays good southpaw, good defense, good body shots, good sprawl. It seems that he likes to grapple a little bit. I saw a couple of interviews that Craig Jones kind of grappled him a little bit and said good things about it. I know he can grapple just because his fight with Brazil, he tried a couple of guillotines.

If you don't grapple, you're not going to try. The way he was trying, I say, oh, he can grapple, you know. So I think he is a completely package, you know. He can grapple. He can defend a takedown. I don't think takedown defense was the most impressive

with a short notice. But I think he's a danger fighter, you know, with a good, motivated fighter in front of him. You know, if he beats me, he's, what, top know with the with the good motivated fighter in front of him you know if he beats me he's what top top five top four right there very close to a title shot i think he's gonna be super danger at that night the guy you mentioned who had the short notice fight with basel hafez basel hafez yeah do you attribute the what do you want to call that relative underperformance of adela Maddalena?

Is that because the opponent was last minute, or is there something more about the style and the sort of strategic approach that that guy took? I see the two ways to see it. I see he could see that, he could see, oh, change it upon it. But the only thing was it should be Sean Brady. Like, I think Sean Brady would maybe do the same that the guy did but another thing that I'm seeing okay was Sean notice the guy was kind of awkward

different style and was that uh apex cage you know ways smaller so that guy run through a takedown I kind of can give that okay maybe it was a little bit off night, changing opponent, changing the dates. He's supposed to fight in the next day, extra day in Vegas, fight him the next week. It might be that too, but, or it might, we're going to find out March 9th, but all we might, we see a little path right there, you know? In terms of maintaining performance, I know you train at the, what's it called, the Institute for Human Performance? I believe that's the name right i used to yeah not anymore not anymore so where

do you go to for that similar kind of training that you got there where do you go now i do i have a brazilian physical therapist strength conditioning coach that's kind of like helping more we're kind of doing i'll say kind of the similar style, but with less weight, more cardio in movement. You know, we're still doing a circuit. We do every Saturday. We do it in my garage. I have a garage. We match.

We reverse a climber, bike, weight, everything. So we do here. But regularly, we do a regular strength and conditioning, cardio, strength, but not as big weights that i used to do why the change my body was was was crying was a lot of little injuries a lot of little things was a lot of you know like kind of over training sometimes in the middle of the training feeling fatigue the day of the sport now we kind of just load's still doing, but not as I used to do, you know? Yeah, fair enough.

But my question is this. Do you have on a piece of paper measurables about what you know your VO2 max to be or other kinds of metrics that matter to you so that you always know, hey, this tells me I'm in shape because I can see my numbers are the same camp over camp. I do. I got that freaking Oro ring. I got everything. I got all the numbers and my coach is saying,

I don't, I want to know. I'm not, I don't have with myself. I don't, I don't, I don't see a lot, but I always want to know how I'm doing, how are the numbers, everything. But they check everything, my strength and conditioning, got all the tests, all the numbers. So part of the reason I ask is because you may be aware of the statistic

that basically in your weight class, 170 pounds, and this is not a title fight, but obviously that's going to be one of your goals. But in title fights, only Tyron Woodley in two different occasions, Demian Maia and then the gentleman from England, Darren Till. Those are the only two times someone over the age of 35 has either won or defended a UFC title at welterweight. You're 37. Your opponent is 27.

To what extent have you given thought about your age and what that means for your performance uh i i give it thought easily here at the gym when i see freaking jason jackson with a fight in the games was the guy that he just beat oh my god the the the former in the pfl bellator oh ray cooper or bastard i was being freaking ray cooper and i was doing great against jason jackson and i think i have a lot of high level teammates that i can literally share daily experience grappling sparring and those guys are younger than me, they're hungry too, but if I still, let me say that good, when I still test myself in beating,

doing the high-level things with these guys and make the best decision on training, being as competitive as these guys, I still like to compete. Whenever the little hunger goes, my hunger goes down, my fire goes down, and I cannot compete with these guys at the G anymore, I'm done. But these guys are competing on the highest level, and we're beating each other in the G.

I'm being Ray Cooper for this guy and giving him freaking five crazy rounds. I know I still get everything. To be honest, I don't care about the age so much. I care about my body. I care about the way I think. I care if I still have it, if I still have the fire,

if I'm taking care of my body. I don't drink. I don't go out. I eat a little bit. I love to eat, but I don't eat as don't go out i don't i eat a little bit i love to eat but i don't eat as crazy but that's about no drugs no smoke my body's freaking healthy bro i think if you get my body and get someone else's body and we do the chronologic age i'll be way younger than a lot of these guys uh yeah and you have world-class training partners. So if you're, if you're doing well against them, it's a pretty good measurement about how you'll do elsewhere.

In terms of Jack Dillon, Madalena, what would you say that you have either from experience or skill that he's never faced? Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy, consider yourself warned.

Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. What I have that he never face. I have a lot of experience that, I think the mix it up. If I look at his last opponents, Kevin Holland, Basil Hafez, Danny Roberts. We got the Russian dude. We got a lot of high level guys that he fought. But no one, I think, possessed the power that I do, the grappling that I do, the high-level competition that I face, I think really putting all together the grappling, the wrestling,

the heavy hands, the movement, the experience. Freaking April's 10 years that I'm in the UFC, so I think that all you haven't seen yet, that all together high-level grappling with a good wrestling, strong guy that punches very hard he's quick i i think putting all that you get is going to be a little problem for him uh you mentioned craig jones i wonder what you think yeah he's obviously um he loves to joke and i love his jokes i actually think he's hysterical and i honestly think that

like jujitsu needs people like that people who are not so I agree crazy all the time but I wonder what you make of what he has taught because I've watched many of his instructionals and one thing he's big on is like you know forget about how points are scored but like what is functionally valuable like he goes back to turks and pins and rides it's almost like it's almost like catch wrestling but a little bit more jujitsu-y what do you make of what he thinks about what the modern grappling game is missing or could be better at i i think the experience that craig has now especially trying to evoke and studying the the the mma i think he's he has such a high level grappling. He does organize and instruct that they're very good. I think he gave a couple of good points for Jack.

I think a couple of details, how to get up, the cage control, how they do. They face, on all his camp, he got ready for his first fight. The whole camp, Volker looked very good at that fight. You know, take down defense on point, get up on point, defense on point. And I think he gave kind of a lot of those tips for Jack. You know, I think Jack is going to be ready for a lot of different basic scenarios, get ups, take down defense, back defense. I think he's going to be sharp, you know.

But that's what I like the most look to be honest that that's what I like when it's not easy when I like Yoshi's defending here okay I gotta change there and then I change in his followers say okay okay he got it that's when it's funny for me when I like okay oh he's know what he's doing. That was a good get up. You know, okay, not bad. Oh, good defense. That's what got me going the most. And it's not easy. When I like, I really have to work for it. And we start changing Jiu-Jitsu.

That's when my eyes start getting bright. And I'm like, oh my God, I like it. Like, you want to do Jiu-Jitsu? We're going to grapple. We're going to exchange. So if that's the case, then you're going to have the answers. I'm more intrigued to see that coming.

Okay, let's grapple. Let's see how many variations you have, how many defenses you have. That's what I like the most. What does a win at UFC 299 realistically get you? It depends. It depends on what type of win. You know,

if I go out there and get a finish and dominate Jack and show his levels, I think he get me. I'm back. I'm very close to that, that door to another title shot.

You know, maybe one more. We'll see. When I hear Dana White saying he get three opponents for Leon, it gets me like oh my god, okay, Belal is not clear, he's not the one that

he's supposed to be the number one contender but he's not like, whenever I saw him and that, I said okay, I gotta do my homework, you know, my homework right now is to go out there and make a statement, if I go out there and get a big and get a good win, I think I'm gonna be very close to a title shot.

Maybe with a little bit more homework to do or maybe not. All right. Very quickly, I appreciate your time. Give me a prediction for the main event – excuse me, the co-main event, Dustin Poirier, Benoit, Saint-Denis. Oh, my God. They put me in trouble right now. I think Benoit is a beast.

I think he has everything to become a champion. He's a monster. He's huge. I don't even know how he makes 155, but the guy is danger mentality. I love that military mentality. Those guys really come to a war. But Durst is a dog, bro.

I don't bet, but if I would bet, I don't bet against Durst. No freaking guy shows up every single time. So I think it's going to be a crazy fight, but I think Durst can get the job done. Sean O'Malley, Marlon Vera, main event. I like both guys too. You just put me on the situation right now.

But I think O'Malley's the fastest guy. O'Malley's more creative. O'Malley, he want that one back. Otherwise, he would not call for that one. And I think if Pichito was too much a crazy improvement, I don't think Sean would call for that rematch right now. The way he call it, the way he make it happen, he knows something we don't know.

And then I got Sean O'Malley still the champion for this fight. Last but not least, just want to pick your brain as somebody who's been in the fight game. To what extent were you surprised by Teporia's win over Volkanovski? Not really, not much. This guy came here to the gym. He did half of his camp against Josh Emmett here. And he knocked out three

of my teammates out not down out with the big gloves with the big gloves i'm gonna say that one more time with the big gloves christ out and i saw he trained i saw him grappling and he he's not a big dude he's not a big dude, he's not a tall dude, but he's solid, and the other day, we were wrestling, and then we changed groups, I was having a war, a couple guys, and then

sometimes we do that at the end of the practice, okay, we're done, class is over, okay, but the last thing we have, keep with the partners, take down whoever score is over, and then but the last thing we have keep with the partners, take down whoever score is over and then I was having a war with someone, then eventually

or I got taken down, I didn't take down we were done, and then we started jogging and then Topuya was in the middle with a high level wrestler from freaking Dagestan and that guy is so strong and good defense, and then he took the guy down Dagestan. And that guy is so strong in good defense. And then he took the guy down.

Dagestanian wrestler. That's when I'm like, man, this guy can do it all. Because I know his grapple is at a high level. I just saw him knocking a couple guys out. And he's that strong and he can wrestle? This guy's going to be champion. And then I gave an interview to michael bisman before the fight and i said bro i love oak i love his family his dad his thing but he's going to become a champion i thought so too but i i wanted to talk to another smart man who knew what was going on so i went to gilbert burns

gilbert i cannot wait to see your fight man ufc 299 can't get here soon enough of course the date everyone knows is going to be on pay-per-view but it'll be uh march 9th saturday march 9th live Burns Gilbert. I cannot wait to see your fight, man. UFC two 99. Can't get here soon enough. Of course the date, everyone knows is going to be on pay-per-view, but it'll be a March 9th, Saturday, March 9th, live from Miami, a home game for you. Gilbert,

thank you for your time. Can't wait to see your fight. Really appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you.