World BJJ champion and UFC athlete Gilbert “Durinho” Burns is finishing his preparation to face Garry Tonon at Polaris 4, scheduled for Saturday the 29th in the UK. Graciemag talked to him this week.
“I’m very excited to fight at Polaris,” he said. “I fought recently at the UFC and didn’t have a good day. I trained well, did it all right and without injury, but was being negative on the day. Going back to training BJJ is a way to get out of this feeling of not fighting, of acting on autopilot. I want to go in well and get a submission at Polaris, and then fight at the No-Gi Worlds.”
About his opponent, the U.S.’s Garry Tonon, who recently beat Rousimar Toquinho and Ralek Gracie, Durinho preached respect but sounded a little fed up with the trash-talking:
“He’s a tough guy, a student of Renzo’s, and he is very good at leg locks and heel locks. But he’s got this Conor McGregor vibe going on, challenging everybody, talking trash. He posted a picture of me saying crap. But that only motivates me. He is active, been competing a lot. It will be 15 minutes of war, where only a submission counts, and I’m going in to win it. I respect him as an athlete, but he’s saying too many stupid things.”
