Former UFC fan favorite who Dana White regrets letting go of pleads for his return

During his time in the UFC, Shane Burgos was a huge favorite amongst the fanbase as he was consistently involved in some incredible fights.

When he was part of the UFC featherweight division, Shane Burgos was almost a permanent fixture in the rankings despite never taking his career to the next level.

‘Hurricane’ Shane seemingly became content with the fact that he would likely never win a UFC title and made his name as one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, putting his body on the line with every single outing.

In his 11 UFC fights, Burgos won Fight of the Night on four separate occasions, making him a reliable fighter for the promotion to lean on.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCShane Burgos pleads for UFC return after becoming free agentFollowing a win over Charles Jourdain in 2023, Burgos shockingly announced that he was leaving the UFC to join the PFL, where he went on to fight in their $1m lightweight tournament.

At the time, UFC boss Dana White admitted that the promotion ‘F—– up’ by letting the fan favorite go, which is extremely rare for the UFC boss to do.

“That was a mistake (letting him go), you know. I like the kid. Listen, do I think Shane Burgos was gonna move on and be a world champion and all of this? No. But he’s fun. He’s fun. I like guys that come out and they bring it every single time they fight, and guys who wanna perform and guys who wanna win,” White admitted during a post-fight press conference.

“Who has it more than that kid does? I’m happy for him, I’m happy for him and good for the PFL too. He’s a great kid and not just an exciting, fun fighter, he’s a great person, so good for everyone involved. We’re not perfect, but we don’t f— up often, but we f—– that one up,” White continued.

And now, following Burgos’ loss to Clay Collard, he is once again a free agent and has pleaded for a return to the UFC.

“There’s one option for me in my head, I wanna finish my career in the UFC. I went to the PFL, and I have zero regrets, hindsight’s 2020 and again, I have zero regrets, I made good money over there,” Burgos told Inside Fighting.

“I just wanna finish my career in the UFC, and I think every fighter knows that the premier organization in the world is the UFC. When it’s all said and done, I wanna lay my gloves down in the UFC cage,” he continued.

Burgos went on to suggest that he is going to ‘stay ready’ incase a short notice opportunity comes up, stating that the UFC can rely on him.

Shane Burgos suffered one of the most bizarre KO losses everDuring his six-year tenure in the UFC, the 34-year-old fought some big names in the featherweight division, including Calvin Kattar and Josh Emmett.

However, one of the biggest fights of his career came against UFC legend Edson Barboza.

After an incredibly close back-and-forth fight, Barboza connected with a big punch in round three, which hurt Burgos. However, ‘Hurricane’ Shane seemingly recovered from the punch.

And then, he gradually began stumbling backwards and subsequently ended up on the mat, clueless as to what had just happened. The delayed response KO will go down as one of the most bizarre in UFC history.