In-form grappler Gilbert Burns beat former UFC champ Tyron Woodley so bad it looked like the American was crying blood

• Gilbert Burns sliced Tyron Woodley's face open and dominated him with ease at a UFC on ESPN 9 show on Saturday.
• The event was held at a UFC-owned facility called Apex, but was closed to fans because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
• Burns, a jiu jitsu specialist by trade, showed a variety to his stand-up skills by out-landing Woodley with blows to the head, body, and legs.
• Watch some of the action below.

An in-form grappler called Gilbert Burns beat the former UFC champ Tyron Woodley so bad it looked like the American was crying tears of blood.

Burns sliced Woodley's eyebrow open with a sharp elbow strike during the fight and the blood streamed down both sides of his eye, making it look like he was weeping.

It was a controlled but aggressive masterclass from the second degree Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, who dominated Woodley in every major statistical department on Saturday, May 30 at Apex, a UFC-owned facility in Las Vegas.

Burns dictated the pace from the opening bell, outlanding Woodley with 29 strikes to five, dropping him to the floor, and attacking him with a variety of head shots from distance and from the ground.

Burns landed a takedown in the second, outlanded him with strikes in the second and the third, then dropped Woodley again in the fourth with punches.

By the fight's end, Burns had landed 156 of his 211 strikes compared to Woodley's 65 of 101, and had completed two of eight takedown attempts, too.

Burns was so dominant from the off that two of the three Octagon-side judges scored the opening round 10-8.

While Burns is known for his jiu jitsu, his punching was so accurate and versatile that he outlanded Woodley with strikes to the head, body, leg, the clinch, and the ground.

"Give me a shot," Burns said after the fight, in a socially-distant interview with the UFC commentator and former champion Daniel Cormier, wanting to compete for Kamaru Usman's UFC welterweight championship.

"I think I just made a statement to the whole division that I'm next for the title," he said.

Burns added that he'd be ready to fight again in June or July and if he could not be given a bout against Usman, then he'd want to compete against one of the other contenders like Colby Covington, Leon Edwards, or Jorge Masvidal.

"I just want to be busy," he said. "I think the recipe is that, training and compete, compete, compete, keeping fighting."

It was the 33-year-old's sixth successive win, having also beaten Gunnar Nelson and Demian Maia previously, which will now place him prominently in the top five of the division.

The UFC event was behind-closed-doors because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with safety precautions like a regularly disinfected Octagon aimed to protect athletes from becoming infected with COVID-19.

Fighters had also been tested for the coronavirus before the UFC on ESPN 9 event.

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