The past calendar year has been a whirlwind for featherweight Shane Burgos, who is fighting UFC veteran and no. 13 ranked featherweight Edson Barboza on Saturday.
In June 2020, Burgos took part in a fight of the year candidate in a unanimous decision loss to Josh Emmett.
Then, Burgos had a rough battle with COVID-19.
“I had it for 10 days full. First day was really bad, exhaustedly tired and felt like absolute crap,” Burgos said at UFC 262 media day. “Then the rest of the days after that I was just lethargic the entire time. It was so frustrating.”
Burgos then had a fight fall out. The no. 9 ranked contender was originally scheduled to fight no. 15 ranked Hakeem Dawodu at UFC 257, but the Canadian featherweight Dawodu was forced to pull out with a shoulder injury.
The New York native then had his second daughter just two weeks ago.
Now? Burgos is just days away from fighting UFC veteran and kickboxing ace Edson Barboza on the main card of UFC 262.
Burgos watched Barboza when the featherweight was still in high school, to say he is excited for this matchup is an understatement.
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“Man, I got goosebumps. Like my hair standing up. I was like, ‘Yes, this is the one man,’” Barboza said. “Because after that, you come off a loss you don’t know you’re gonna get offered. You don’t know what you’re going to get.
“But to get a name like Edson Barboza off of loss? Dude, I feel like this is the biggest fight of my career honestly.”
While he predicts a finish against Barboza, Burgos promises fireworks for this main card matchup.
“It’s one of those fights where if you run it 100 times it’s going to be exciting every single time,” Burgos said. “There’s just no possible way that this fight could be boring.”
With this bout as the first fight on the pay-per-view, UFC 262 should start off with a bang.
Shane Burgos on Edson Barboza matchup: “There’s just no possible way that this fight could be boring.”
