Chimaev, 32, is a three-time Swedish freestyle wrestling champion and a former medalist at the Russian Junior Championships. As for Burns, who turned 40 in July, his wrestling has been limited to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and submission fighting tournaments, putting him at a significant disadvantage for this Friday night rematch.
“You can definitely tell he’s the better wrestler,” Burns said MMA junkie. “He’s competed a lot more times than I have. He’s a bigger guy, but I think I can have heart and cardio in front of him. That’s my goal: to frustrate him, get my good entrances in, tire him out like crazy. That’s my goal. To tire him out like crazy, look at him and be like, ‘I know how you feel.’ When I look back at our fight and Strickland’s fight, he hates to be tired. That’s what I think. My goal is to try to put him in there and see how he feels. He’s very strong, very tall. I know a couple of things (his previous opponents) did wrong that I’m not going to do.