Training out of CKB, Henri Burns is one of the four men scheduled to fight in a one-night grand prix tournament on February 22nd to determine the Eternal MMA Heavyweight Champion.

Against him will be three other heavyweight beasts with their backgrounds in various other fighting codes. All just as hungry as he is to become the champion.

Henri is a purple belt in BJJ, having won a gold medal at the World Championships in 2019. He is a well-rounded MMA fighter, though, holding a kickboxing record of 11-3 and a professional MMA record of 1-1. Henri fights out of the now-famous City Kickboxing gym in Auckland, as well as running his own MMA gym in Tahiti full-time.

Harry Greenfield caught up with Henri to ask him a few questions ahead of this momentous title opportunity the night before UFC Auckland.

Hi Henri. You train at CKB, right? Tell us about the gym environment now with so much international exposure.

“The environment here at CKB is incredible; I train with the best in the world and I feel so good to be surrounded by the best. The exposure of CKB didn’t really change a lot for me. I always feel that mana in the gym; I’ve been telling everyone in my island Tahiti that the best gym in the world is here in New Zealand, but they prefer to go to the USA and train. I’m so lucky to be with CKB. It’s improved my game a lot as an MMA fighter.”

How would you describe your fighting style?

“My fighting style: I can go down, I can strike, I can wrestle. I don’t have a style, I just I go in there give my best; that’s me.”

Who is your toughest fight in the upcoming grand prix tournament on Feb 22?

“My toughest fight? Hmm I don’t really know. I think they’re all really tough. But I train hard, so we’ll see on the day.”

If you become the Eternal MMA Heavyweight Champion as you plan to, will you be gunning for a fight in the UFC in the near future?

“Yeah for sure. The UFC has always been my dream so why not?”

Do you have a day job? If so, what do you do?

“I am training full-time. I have a gym in my island called MOOREA MMA. It is a special gym because really the purpose of it is to help my community in my island. More and more we are exposed to drug problems on my island (like methamphetamine) and my job is raise awareness in the young guys on my island and try to put them in the fighting game so they don’t have time to deal with that sh*t.”

If you’re in Auckland on February 22^nd, make sure you get your tickets to Eternal 50 in advance, as the event will surely sell out with the UFC in town the following day. Tickets are available from the Eventbrite website.

You can follow Henri on his athlete Facebook page or his instagram: @henri7burns.