Gilbert Burns isn\u2019t worried about riling up the local fans ahead of his main event matchup with Mike Malott.<\/p>\n
The welterweights headline UFC Winnipeg on Saturday, and after the final faceoff at Friday\u2019s ceremonial weigh-ins, Burns had a message for his Canadian opponent and his supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Canada,\u201d Burns said. \u201cWinnipeg is very nice, I have a lot of fun, but guess what? I\u2019m going to smash your boy tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burns words were immediately met with boos from the fans, who will firmly be in the corner of Malott\u2014who hails from Ontario\u2014on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Malott is just the third Canadian to headline an event in his home country, joining welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre and longtime contender Rory MacDonald. Prior to Burns\u2019 parting shot, Malott was first to speak, and he sounded like he was in awe at the opportunity ahead of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never felt so privileged in my life,\u201d Malott said. \u201cThis is so incredible to get to represent my country in the UFC in the main event. I love you, guys. This is a dream come true, thank you so much for making my dream come to reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd roared in approval as Malott exited the stage.<\/p>\n
UFC Winnipeg takes place at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and features nine fighters representing \u201cThe Great White North,\u201d including Malott, Charles Jourdain, and Jasmine Jasudavicius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gilbert Burns isn\u2019t worried about riling up the local fans ahead of his main event matchup with Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-611518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}