Herbert Burns thinks of new challenge following first MMA loss

The black-belt wants to use his first defeat to learn and chase the belt. One Championship

Herbert Burns had never tasted the bitter taste of defeat. Defending his invincibility and looking for a chance to fight for the One Championship featherweight belt, he faced Russia’s Movlid Khaibulaev in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 10. After three rounds, Burns saw his foe’s hand raised, and a streak of six wins wasn’t going to be extended further. The brother of Gilbert Durinho, who had gone almost two years without fighting, lamented the loss.

“I dedicated myself a lot,” he said. “I did my best to be able to train, since I didn’t have money due to not fighting for so long. I wasn’t able to travel to the United States as I had planned; I didn’t have a defined team, but I was able to train with my friends in Niterói. Thales Leites, Emerson Falcão, Leandro Ataídes — everybody embraced me. I went a lot of time without fighting, and One gave me a tough, active guy. But I’ve never been one to run from a fight — I’ve taken on many tough opponents, — so I went into the fight confident. But things didn’t turn out as I imagined. So kudos to him. I hope someday throughout my career to do a rematch with him.

“I have to absorb this loss and move forward. I’m not happy with the loss; I’m not used to losing; it’s something that hurts me, but now I must learn from this loss and try to improve. Looking on the bright side, this loss showed me some errors in my game. So it’s time to look at these errors and work on them to come back better. As soon as I am 100% recovered, I will ask for a new fight and will seek a win to to keep going toward the belt.”