Daniel Cormier on why Gilbert Burns would have defeated Kamaru Usman at UFC 251

Kamaru Usman's performance against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 251 was dubbed as a "standard" performance from him where he used his elite wrestling to press Jorge Masvidal up against the fence and outpoint him to a unanimous decision victory.

While Kamaru Usman's style of fighting has been criticized, there's no doubt that it's highly effective and many believe that he's likely the best and most dominant Welterweight since the legendary George St-Pierre.

While that's yet to be seen, one has to wonder how the fight would have gone had Gilbert Burns not tested positive for COVID-19. The Brazilian was originally booked to fight Kamaru Usman at UFC 251, and while it worked out better for the organization to have Jorge Masvidal take that spot, Daniel Cormier is one man who feels that Gilbert Burns would have been more effective.

Talking to ESPN's Ariel Helwani on the DC & Helwani Show, the former two-division UFC Champion said that had Kamaru Usman fought the way he did against Gilbert Burns, he wouldn't have won (H/T BJPENN.com):

“Can I say something that Usman’s probably not gonna like too much? If you’re Masvidal, you go fight “Rocky” [Leon Edwards] when Usman fights Gilbert Burns because if Usman fought Gilbert Burns [the way he fought Masvidal], I don’t think he would’ve won. I really don’t think he would’ve beat Gilbert Burns with the performance that he had last weekend. I think Gilbert Burns is too good and he provides too many problems on that night.”

While Jorge Masvidal had only six days to prepare for the fight (including a massive weight cut), Daniel Cormier believes that Kamaru Usman would have won if he "mixed it up" as he did against Colby Covington at UFC 245 this past December:

“If he fought Gilbert Burns like he did against Covington where he was mixing it up, he might have won that fight. But I’m saying like, the fight that he fought Saturday wasn’t gonna beat, or at least I don’t feel would’ve beaten Gilbert Burns.”

Gilbert Burns had a long camp preparing for a fight against his teammate, Kamaru Usman. When taking that into account and his dominant performances against former Champion Tyron Woodley, former title challenger Demian Maia, and Gunnar Nelson, then it's not hard to imagine that he would have been a big problem for Kamaru Usman.

Who's next for Kamaru Usman?

With a dominant win against Jorge Masvidal, Gamebred doesn't have too much of a claim for an immediate rematch. However, the staggering 1.3 million PPV buy rate will give UFC a lot of consideration to booking a rematch - especially after Jorge Masvidal recently declared that he would rather face Kamaru Usman over money fights against Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor.

With that said, Gilbert Burns is most likely next for Kamaru Usman since he had the original title shot anyway. Leon Edwards is deserving of a title shot as well following an 8-fight win streak. The last man who defeated him? Kamaru Usman in December 2015.