The odds makers have Gilbert Burns as the underdog for his upcoming bout with UFC welterweight champ, Kamaru Usman. But, it looks like Rafael dos Anjos might put some money down on his buddy.

RDA will put his “money on Gilbert”

Burns has been tapped to fight the welterweight champ in the headliner of UFC 251, which will go down on July 11th on Yas Island. The former lightweight’s been booked for the opportunity after going 4-0, since he moved up to welterweight.

Most recently, Burns worked his way to a dominant, decision win over former champ, Tyron Woodley.

Well, since then, dos Anjos spoke with MMA Junkie. While talking about the upcoming fight, the former lightweight champ said this.

“I’ve known Gilbert since like first grade,” dos Anjos said. “I was his older brother’s best friend. We were in like second grade, and Gilbert was in first grade.

I’ve known Gilbert for so many years him and his brothers, and he’s a great guy. I like him a lot.”

“I think he’s very motivated,” dos Anjos said of Burns. “One thing I can be sure: He’s motivated. I think since he and Kamaru, they trained a lot together in the past, I think he has a big chance.

I’ll put my money on Gilbert, because I feel like he’s on his time, and he feels like he got a chance for the title, and I’m sure he’s going to go with everything.”

Now, some will argue that RDA’s being biased here, on account of his friendship with Burns, and that could very well be true. But, it would be silly to count Burns out.

“Durinho’s” striking has improved dramatically, he hits hard, and, he ‘s ridiculously dangerous on the ground.

UFC 251 line-up

Here is the line-up to date for UFC 251, which will feature three title fights.

UFC 251 PPV Main Card on ESPN+ (10 p.m. ET)

170 lbs.: UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns
145 lbs.: UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway
135 lbs.: Jose Aldo vs. Petr Yan for vacant bantamweight title
115 lbs.: Jessica Andrade vs. Rose Namajunas
125 lbs.: Amanda Ribas vs. Paige VanZant

UFC 251 Prelims Card on ESPN (8 p.m. ET)

205 lbs.: Volkan Oezdemir vs. Jiri Prochazka
170 lbs.: Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Muslim Salikhov
145 lbs.: Makwan Amirkhani vs. Danny Henry
155 lbs.: Leonardo Santos vs. Roman Bogatov

UFC 251 Prelims Card on ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET):

265 lbs.: Marcin Tybura vs. Alexander Romanov
125 lb.: Raulian Paiva vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
135 lbs.: Karol Rosa vs. Vanessa Melo
135 lbs.: Martin Day vs. Davey Grant

Line-up via MMA Mania

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