Jun-15-2009

Kevin Burns: Rebooted, Ready for Lytle

By Debbie Lee

When it comes to describing what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a knockout, “seeing stars” is an all-too-common cliché. Up-and-coming welterweight Kevin Burns prefers to use his own unique metaphor, likening the experience to reloading a hard drive.

“It’s interesting, it’s like the mind goes on reset,” explained the 29-year-old. “The brain needs recovery time in a way that’s just like rebooting a computer. For the first thirty minutes after my last fight, I had to ask [my corner men] the same question about 17 times: ‘Was it the third round, left hook?’”

No, they told him repeatedly. It was the third round, left kick.

A stunning head kick, to be exact. Delivered to Burns by Anthony “Rumble” Johnson at The Ultimate Fighter 8 finale last December, the knockout blow was devastating for reasons that were twofold: 1) It marked Burns’ first loss in the UFC, and 2) It was a failed opportunity to avenge a previous win.

The latter may sound like an oxymoron, but you read it right. The Iowa native had already earned a TKO victory over Johnson six months earlier at UFC Fight Night. It’s just that he did it in an unfortunate fashion. Upon close inspection, it turned out that Burns – who relied on open palm strikes to spare a broken hand (his third in 16 months) – ended the fight via an accidental eye poke.

It wasn’t exactly the way he envisioned the follow-up to his UFC debut.

One month earlier, Burns – up until then, a nine-to-fiver who fought on the local circuit – stepped up on less than two weeks notice to replace Ryo Chonan at UFC 85 in London, England. In spite of his status as the underdog, he secured a second-round triangle choke on American Top Team’s Roan Carneiro. An unknown blue belt had beat the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt at his own game.

While that win came fair and square, Burns admitted that the second Octagon victory made him a bit uneasy. He immediately agreed to a rematch against Johnson. This time, he thought, there would be no injuries to nurse or accidents to blame. A definitive win would put naysayers’ doubts to rest.

But twenty-eight seconds into the third round, Johnson took him down with that head kick.

After dealing with the initial disappointment, Burns ultimately found the silver lining of his first major defeat.

“In a lot of ways it was one of the best things that could happen to me,” he said. “For a long time I relied on my athleticism to get by, but when I watched the replay, it became obvious that there were some holes in my game that I was neglecting. I saw a couple of things that I could fix. It was good for this loss to happen when it did in my career.”

Burns has since made the necessary adjustments to secure his place in the division. Once a full-time Wells Fargo employee who trained during his work breaks, he’s now cutting back on office hours and increasing his time in the gym. (“I haven’t given up a day job completely, though,” he adds. “It keeps me grounded.”)

And in addition to improving his ground game at home in Des Moines, Burns is rounding out his training through weeklong stints with Ken Hahn of Striking Unlimited in Las Vegas.

So if the Kevin Burns we saw at UFC 85 was the product of lunchtime workout sessions, what will the new and improved version bring to the table?

“I think that fans can expect to see a much improved striker and wrestler,” he revealed. “And after the last fight, there will be better footwork and overall movement in general.”

With his mind and body “rebooted,” Burns, 8-2 (2-1 in the UFC), is ready to showcase those new skills on June 20th at the live finale of The Ultimate Fighter: US vs. UK, when he will go toe-to-toe with Chris “Lights Out” Lytle.

Lytle (36-17-4) will be coming off of a split decision loss to Marcus Davis on January’s UFC 93 card, putting him at 1-2 in his last three fights. But even with his opponent’s record in the red, Burns is not taking the veteran lightly.

“I wouldn’t say that this is going to be easy,” he said. “Lytle has fought all of the top competition in our weight class and he’s extremely tough. But I’ve done my studying and preparation. He’s so seasoned that there’s no shortage of film out there for me to review. And it’s not hard to predict what he’s going to do.”

Though he has more submission victories than knockouts on his record (four and three, respectively), Burns insists that there is only one way this battle will go down: on the feet.

“In a lot of ways, stylistically, I couldn’t have asked for a better match up,” he said. “I’m a pressure fighter – I don’t sit around and circle. I like to get up in your grill and I do not sit back and wait to counterpunch. Lytle is similar that way. He’s got a cinder block for a jaw, and he likes to come right at you and throw bombs. He wants to trade, and so do I.”

Burns adds that it’s not just the win he’s going for – his primary goal is to deliver the kind of show that’ll leave a lasting impression with fans.

“I can’t predict how it’ll end, but either way, this is going to be awesome for the viewers,” he said. “With the two of us inside the cage, they’re going to get what they want.”

As he looks to his next match with such enthusiasm, it would be nice if fans could now put the Johnson saga to rest. After all, Burns certainly has.

“I look at my last fight as only a minor setback, and I’ve used it as an opportunity to get better,” he said. “In the end, it’s going to help me as I try to get back on the fast track to an eventual title shot.”

Without pause, he corrected himself.

“I will get back on the fast track.”