Las Vegas — A clearly dejected Shane Burgos addressed the media after losing his PFL debut against Olivier Aubin-Mercier on Friday night in Las Vegas.
Burgos (15-4) was arguably the biggest free agent signing for the PFL this past off-season. The featherweight moved up to lightweight against OAM, a move made due to the busy PFL schedule. While Burgos told media outlets including Cageside Press that he didn’t feel much of a strength difference against the Canadian, he was controlled through a solid two rounds, coming up short in the grappling department.
“It’s just a very unsatisfying feeling. It feels like I never got to get going. After the first round, we stood the whole time, and then he just tried to hold me the whole time,” Burgos stated. “Not taking anything away from him, I get it, take the path of least resistance. If he can just hold me, why wouldn’t he? He has to fight again in ten weeks.”
“I understand, it’s just so f*cking frustrating. I feel like I had a lot of people counting on me, I feel like I let a lot of people down. It breaks my f*cking heart,” Burgos continued. “You guys know the way I fight. The last couple— the end of the round, I tried to f*cking bring that the whole time. I didn’t get the chance to get going until the f*cking round was over. So it’s a very unsatisfying feeling.”
Towards the end of the third, Burgos unleashed a flurry that had Aubin-Mercier covering up. But with so little time left, it made no difference. The Canadian had held his own on the feet in the opening round, which was close — but the second and most of the third, until that last push by Burgos, were one-sided affairs.
“What am I going to do? Just sit here and feel sorry for myself? I’m going to do that for the next 20, 30 minutes at least. But what can I do?” questioned Burgos, clearly unhappy with his performance. “I can’t knock him for it. He did what he had to do to win the fight. If I was in his same shoes, he was just going to hold me and win the round, why not?”
And so for Shane Burgos, it’s time to look ahead. “I got June 23rd coming up, so I’m going to let this sh*t go by tomorrow and focus on that.”
Watch the full 2023 PFL 3 post-fight press scrum with Shane Burgos above.
