On August 15, fan favourite Shane Burgos announced that he was leaving the UFC after six years with the promotion, and was taking on a new challenge with the PFL.
Not long after, the PFL announced a ferocious featherweight bout was scheduled to take place on their 2022 championship card on November 25, between “Hurricane” Shane and former WSOF (World Series Of Fighting) bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes. Better yet for Burgos, he was told it’d take place in New York.
The 31-year-old fights out of New York, and has fought in the City on seven previous occasions, being victorious in all.
Burgos told Cageside Press in a recent interview that “it wasn’t even surprising [to be fighting on the championship card], I knew I had the date of November 25 so I knew I was going to be on that finale card, but the word was that it was going to be in Vegas.”
“Doing it in Vegas the day after Thanksgiving I was like sh*t man that’s going to be a little difficult for my family and friends to come out. But then I found out that it was going to be at MSG in New York City so I was like ‘dude everyone’s off of work already, all my friends and family live an hour away so I’m like, you can’t beat this’ so the stars are all aligning.”
Despite his opponent, Moraes, having fought under the World Series Of Fighting banner before, the November 25 bout will also be his first time taping up the PFL gloves. The Brazilian is on a four fight losing skid, but those losses have all come to elite opponents in the UFC.
Burgos believes the acquisition of Moraes is “a good signing,” saying “Look, I know he’s on a skid and everybody’s kind of writing him off for that, but he’s coming into a new weight class and I feel like it’s a new fire lit underneath his ass, he’s coming into reinvent himself and revitalize his career at 145lbs.”
“Stylistically it’s a great match-up on paper and it’s a great match-up for me personally I really do like the match-up.”
Although Burgos is entering his first PFL fight as a 145lb’er, there was always the assumption that at some point during his career, he’d test the waters at 155lbs considering he is on the bigger side of featherweight.
Burgos mentioned that he is going to use his fight with Moraes to gauge where his weight goes after the fight, and will then make a decision on whether he is going to enter the 2023 season as a featherweight or a lightweight.
“I’m going to use this fight to gauge whether after the fight where my weight goes and how it fluctuates. I’m going to try and maintain it and if it gets too heavy for me to continue to go right into another weight cut then I’m going to 155, but if I’m able to maintain it, which I think is possible, then I’ll stick to 145.”
Fight fans can catch the featherweight action along with the championship finales on ESPN+ in the U.S. on November 25 from the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York.
