Fast facts
- Division: Welterweight (also fought at lightweight early in his UFC run)
- Record: 15-10 in the UFC; 1-1 in UFC BJJ
- Nationality: Brazilian and American
- Team/gym: Came up at Associação Oriente Academy in Niterói and Nova União; jiu-jitsu black belt under Rafael Barros
- Notable wins: Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, Jorge Masvidal, Neil Magny, Gunnar Nelson
Most fighters retire and go quiet. They pick up a microphone and start a podcast. They open a gym and post one throwback clip a week. Gilbert Burns laid his gloves on the canvas after a third-round TKO loss to Mike Malott in the main event of UFC Fight Night 273 on April 18, 2026. Then he kept competing.
Six weeks later he was back on a mat, choking out Horlando Monteiro with a rear-naked choke in his UFC BJJ debut at UFC BJJ 9 on June 4. On September 18 he wrestled Khamzat Chimaev under freestyle rules at RAF 13 and lost by technical fall in Round 2. Less than a month after that, on Thursday night in Las Vegas, fellow Brazilian Gabriel Almeida caught him in a first-round heel hook at UFC BJJ 12. Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting described a match where Burns shot early, escaped a guillotine and then struggled to do much from top before Almeida flipped the position and went hunting for a leg. He also turned up this week as a guest on MMA Junkie Radio. For a retired man, his calendar looks like a Fast & Furious sequel schedule.
That restlessness makes total sense once you know where he came from.
The kid with the gi from the trunk
Burns was born July 20, 1986, in Niterói, one of three brothers. He and younger brother Herbert, who later fought in the UFC too, battled severe asthmatic bronchitis as kids. A doctor recommended sports, so at four years old they were doing karate in the backyard.
The jiu-jitsu origin story is pure movie material. In 1998 the brothers found a gi in the trunk of a car belonging to one of their father’s clients. Dad was an upholsterer. The car belonged to a coach named Luiz Carlos, who traded the three boys three months of free lessons for new car seats. Money was tight enough that the oldest brother, Frederick, walked away from competing in 2003 to work and help the family. Frederick later became a combat diver with the Brazilian Navy’s Special Operations, which is a wild flex for the guy who sacrificed so the younger two could keep training.
The nickname came from Nova União. Veteran Vitor Ribeiro, known around the gym as Shaolin, had already tagged Frederick with the name Todo Duro for his stiff movement. When the younger Gilbert proved just as tough in sparring, Shaolin shrank it down to Durinho, the little tough guy. At 18 Burns landed his first sponsorship and used it to cover training and help at home. He dropped out of a physical education program in 2007, moved to Rio Claro, struggled to make rent, kept getting hit with bronchitis and nearly quit. Frederick talked him out of it.
Good call, big brother. Burns took silver at the 2007 Worlds at brown belt, silver again at black belt in 2009, and then went on a heater in 2010 that included the Brazilian Nationals, the Abu Dhabi World Pro and the IBJJF No-Gi Worlds. In 2011 he won IBJJF World gold. He added another No-Gi world title in 2013 and an ADCC bronze in 2015.
From grappling ace to welterweight contender
Burns made his pro MMA debut in January 2012 and that same year coached grappling for Vitor Belfort’s team on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil. His UFC debut came on July 26, 2014, as a replacement for an injured Viscardi Andrade, and he beat Andreas Stahl by decision.
The lightweight years were a lot of fun and a little uneven. He submitted Christos Giagos in Round 1 for a Performance of the Night. Against Alex Oliveira he arguably dropped the first two rounds, then submitted him in the third, a finish UFC.com ranked third on its Submission of the Year list. Rashid Magomedov knocked him down repeatedly and handed him his first loss. Dan Hooker knocked him out in Round 1 at UFC 226. A February 2018 bout fell apart when the UFC’s medical team decided he couldn’t safely make the 156-pound lightweight limit.
Then he moved up to 170, and Gilbert Burns turned into a problem.
In 2019 he took Alexey Kunchenko’s undefeated record as an injury replacement and then stepped in late against Gunnar Nelson and won that too. In March 2020 he did something gloriously rude. The jiu-jitsu world champion stood across from Demian Maia, one of the greatest grapplers in MMA history, and stopped him by TKO in Round 1. Two months later he headlined UFC on ESPN 9 against former champ Tyron Woodley, dropped him in the first round and beat him up for 25 minutes. UFC.com named him the best fighter of the first half of 2020.
The title shot and the Chimaev war
The road to Kamaru Usman had more potholes than a Rio side street. A positive COVID-19 test pulled Burns from UFC 251, and Jorge Masvidal took his spot. The rebooked fight at UFC 256 fell through when Usman needed more time to heal. They finally met at UFC 258 on February 13, 2021, and Burns dropped the champion early. Usman came back and stopped him in Round 3.
Burns rebounded with a decision over Stephen Thompson at UFC 264. Then came UFC 273 on April 9, 2022, against Chimaev. He lost a unanimous decision, but that fight won Fight of the Night, the President’s Choice Fight of the Year award at the UFC Honors, and enough goodwill that Dana White paid him his win bonus anyway. When the boss hands you winner money for losing, you made a Hollywood fight.
In 2023 he arm-triangled Neil Magny in Round 1 and outpointed Masvidal at UFC 287 before losing a decision to Belal Muhammad at UFC 288.
Where he stands now
The ending was rough. Jack Della Maddalena knocked him out in Round 3 at UFC 299. Sean Brady beat him by decision in a main event. Michael Morales stopped him in the first round of UFC Fight Night 256 in May 2025, Morales’ first UFC main event. Malott finished him in Round 3. Five straight losses.
Look at who did it, though. Della Maddalena went on to hold the welterweight title before Islam Makhachev took it from him at UFC 322. Brady was a top contender. Morales is now 19-0, ranked No. 3 at welterweight, and spent this week, per MMA Fighting, calling out Makhachev, Carlos Prates, Ian Machado Garry and Shavkat Rakhmonov, whom he called “The final boss of this division.” Burns spent the back end of his career as the toughest exam in the division, the guy you had to pass to prove you were real. He never ducked anybody. Half his best wins came on short notice or as a replacement.
That is why the retirement looks the way it does. A guy who once got three months of free lessons for fixing a coach’s car seats does not sit still. His sources list no next booking yet, but Burns has competed three times since April 18. The smart money says the mat will see him again before 2026 runs out.
