After 12 years and 25 fights in the UFC, Gilbert Burns has retired from mixed martial arts. "Durinho" suffered his fifth consecutive loss at UFC Fight Night 273 on April 18, with Mike Malott getting the TKO victory in the third round of his fight with the former UFC Welterweight Championship contender. Burns announced his retirement immediately after the fight, thanking fans for all of their support throughout his career, but had he won the fight, Burns had an entire plan for how the rest of his year would have gone."I believed I was going to win," Burns told MMAFighting.com. "I think Mike Malott is a great fighter but I do believe I was going to win and I have everything it takes to win. If I was winning, I was going to call out Colby [Covington] for International Fight Week. I had a whole plan. 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."In a perfect world for Burns, had he beaten both Malott and Colby Covington, the Brazilian would have still had retirement on his mind, but he would have wanted go out on his own terms on home soil. "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. That's why I said three more fights, that was the way I thinking."However, Burns realized that if he couldn't beat Malott, who he still credits for being a great fighter, then there was no way his plan would ever come to be, and he decided to call time on his career.Please credit "MMAFighting.com" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
