UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and his former teammate and last opponent Gilbert Burns, have recently crossed paths at Sanford MMA.
The two were teammates for years at the South Florida gym but Usman left to start training at Team Elevation under Trevor Wittman in Colorado. Soon after the fight between Usman and Burns was booked for the welterweight belt.
They finally met in February at UFC 258. Burns came out surging and dropped Usman early in the first round. Usman would go on to recover and ended up winning via third-round TKO to retain his title.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and Usman makes his return to the gym he use to call home to help a long-time training partner prepare for an upcoming fight. While there, he crossed paths with Burns.
The encounter can be seen below (via ESPN MMA)
After this interaction, Burns opened up about it in a video on social media. (H/T BJPenn.com)
“Last week, March 2, we got a special visit right here at Sanford MMA: The champion, Kamaru Usman, a former teammate and my last opponent,” Burns said. “He came here [because] a friend of ours is fighting in Abu Dhabi. He’s very close with Kamaru, so Kamaru’s going to be cornering him.”
Burns had nothing but good things to say about Usman in the aftermath of the their fight but added that he thinks they will meet again in the cage soon.
“He came to the gym, it was good,” Burns said. “The respect is still alive. We shook each other’s hands, we exchanged a couple words. We’re all good right now, but I still believe we’re going to see each other again soon, in the Octagon.”