Gilbert Burns says ‘yes-men’ could stand between Khamzat Chimaev & UFC gold

Gilbert Burns believes Khamzat Chimaev can become a double champion if he follows one crucial bit of advice.

Burns gave Chimaev one of the toughest tests of his career when they collided in 2022 in an Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight bout. They are now scheduled to meet in a freestyle wrestling match at RAF 13 on Sept. 18 at Watsco Center in Miami. The Brazilian recently revealed what he believes is holding Chimaev back in his UFC career.

Chimaev (15-1) is coming off his first professional defeat, losing his middleweight title to Sean Strickland (31-7). Burns believes “Borz” will come back hungry and strong. However, “Durinho” doesn’t think Chimaev benefits from changing coaches and camps frequently.

Chimaev previously trained out of Allstars Training Center in Stockholm, Sweden. Burns believes the Chechen was doing better under head coach Andreas Michael at the renowned gym and claims he can still bounce back and become a multi-division UFC champ if he settles down with a good team and has a constant head coach.

“I think he is gonna be very hungry,” Burns told Red Corner MMA. “He is still young; he is still fresh. The only thing that I can watch from the outside and say is I don’t like when he’s changing camps, changing coaches too much. When he fought me, he had that solid general. The guy he was with in Sweden. He was doing a great job… When the team was kind of small. I think he was doing better. So that’s my personal opinion. But I still think he’s gonna bounce back. He just needs a solid team. Guys that are not yes-men. Guys that are gonna tell him what he has to do. With a solid team, he can come back and become a champion, maybe two, maybe three-division champion.”

While Chimaev still has his longtime jiu-jitsu coach Alan “Finfou” Nascimento in his corner, the former champ has frequently switched up his training environment and is now based out of the United Arab Emirates.