“Big Mistakes Were Made” Dana White admits Shane Burgos’ transfer to the PFL was a massive blunder on the UFC’s side
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Dana White has expressed disappointment in the UFC losing Burgos
Shane Burgos’ loss by the UFC to the PFL was a big blunder and Dana White is one man who won’t be afraid to accept that it is so. Burgos who was on a win streak in the UFC, just recently announced that he was signing to the PFL with plans to appear in their million-dollar tournament.
Burgos was ranked #14 in the UFC’s Featherweight division, perhaps one of it’s most talent-rich weight classes and he was someone who fit right in. In fact, Burgos had considerably memorable moments in all of his last 3 fights.
Against Edson Barboza, he fell victim to one of the scariest KOs in the UFC’s history as he lost his balance and fell to the canvas almost 5 seconds after the punch had landed. He bounced back from that with a thunderous battle against Billy Q that would have been more talked about if it only didn’t have to follow the festival of violence that was Chandler vs Gaethje.
Related: “I know what I’m worth” – MMA fighter Shane Burgos leaves UFC to sign with rival company PFL
Shane Burgos’ UFC Departure should not have happened according to Dana White
Even in his last fight for the UFC, he was welcomed as a hometown hero by the Long Island crowd in a winning effort over Charles Jourdain.
It can be understood that losing such a hot prospect to an organization that may not have the name value yet but does have the investments to compete with the UFC, is worrying for everyone inside the War Room.
Moreover, this may set a precedent of fighters leaving the UFC in their prime for a much more independent and better-paying contract in another organization. These feelings can only be fueled further by White’s recent comments on GQ about fighter pay, saying, “It’ll never go up while I’m still here”
When asked by Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports about what his thoughts were on the loss of Shane Burgos, Dana said, “How do I answer that question? Basically, there were some mistakes that were made here, some s*** that … he should have still been here. I respect him very much and I wish him the best. A hundred percent [mistakes were made on the UFC side]. A hundred percent. Big mistakes were made over here.”
This is highly unusual as any contenders who had earlier defected, such as Corey Anderson to Bellator were not seen in a similar light by White.
The company president then went on to rant about his GQ interview being clipped out of context and ESPN Journalists writing stories on Fighter Pay based on the video.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)