After winning at UFC Long Island, Shane Burgos will test free agency.
Most UFC fighters love being UFC fighters and want to continue to be in the organization, and Burgos is one of those; however, he wants to see what he is worth in other fighter promotions.
Pressure before the fight
“Hurricane” came up big at UFC Long Island, winning a unanimous decision over Charles Jourdain in what was the people’s main event. The fight with Jourdain was the last fight on his UFC contract, and even knowing that there was a ton of pressure on him.
“I was thinking about it the whole time, but I did for my last deal when I went into the Makwan [Amirkhani] fight. I was fighting Makwan, that was the last fight on my deal,” Burgos told The MMA Hour. “I feel like it just doubles down on yourself and shows your level of confiedence. It puts a ton of pressure on you 100% because you don’t want to go out on a loss and then you don’t have any bargaining leverage and power. It’s just a bad look for sure. But um, I don’t let that kind of pressure get to me. The pressure moreso was on me to get it a finish, that I put so much of an emphasis on.”
While Burgos didn’t get the finish, a win is a win, and now the ball is in his court. The UFC veteran will now test free agency to see how much he is worth in the eyes of the UFC and other fight promotions.
“I definitely love being here. I love being a UFC fighter, but it doesn’t make sense for me not to test the waters, but um, we’ll see what they come back with. It will be negligent of me and like, disrespectful to my family to not even like hear other numbers. You know, I’m saying I would love to hear some other numbers. I’m not going to be sitting around for the next four or five months waiting for a deal. But yeah, you want to throw some numbers at me. I’m definitely I’m open to listen,” Burgos said.
.@HurricaneShaneB plans to test the free agent waters 🌊 #TheMMAHour
"It would be negligent of me and disrespectful to my family to not even hear other numbers. I would love to hear other numbers."
▶️ https://t.co/kCKMeBctT0 pic.twitter.com/vNQBKdb4Ir
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) July 18, 2022
It is good that more and more fighters are talking about testing free agency because it keeps the UFC somewhat accountable. Well, we can hope.
