Shane Burgos made a little history in his first UFC fight last December by becoming the first fighter to ever have their hair cut in between rounds of a fight, and that’s what most people were talking about after the bout was all said and done. But the featherweight fighter wishes the attention on him was more focused on his fight instead of the hair clippers.
If he put on a lackluster performance, it would be different, Burgos said. But he had a very good showing against Tiago Trator, handily defeating him by decision on the preliminary card of UFC Fight Night 102 in Albany, New York in a “Fight of the Night” candidate.
That said, he understands why his haircut made the headlines more than his bout – attention-grabbing headlines are key, and that was the case here. So, for that reason, Burgos doesn’t regret cutting his hair altogether.
“It was memorable, so I don’t regret it whatsoever. It stuck out in people’s heads, it made people remember me, so that’s fine,” Burgos told BloodyElbow.com’s The MMA Circus. “But hopefully the next fight, they remember me because of the fight and not because of some other sh-t. So hopefully I can put a stamp on this one and make people remember the actual performance.”
According to the New York native, most of his fans were focused on the actual fight – it was the media who continuously asked him about the haircut he was given by his cornermen in between rounds of his debut.
“Surprisingly, most of the people that hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, everybody actually did talk about fight,” he said. “So I didn’t have to explain who I was – that was pretty cool. I got a lot of props for the fight. I got more attention from the media about the haircut than I did from my fans. The people on Twitter were talking about the fight, but the media just wanted to talk about the haircut.”
Burgos has a chance to get the media to remember him because of his performance inside the cage at UFC 210 against Charles Rosa in Buffalo, New York on April 8. Burgos looks at Rosa as a clear step up in competition, but a proper step up – one he deserves.
“It’s the perfect matchup for me,” he said. “It’s not too big of a leap, but it’s definitely a step up. He’s definitely a good fighter, so it’ll be a good test to see how I hang in there against these guys that have been in the UFC for a couple years.”