[brid video=”893888″ player=”25478″ title=”UFC%20268%20Media%20Day%20Shane%20Burgos” duration=”428″ description=”Ranked UFC featherweight Shane Burgos talks to the media before his main card matchup with Billy Quarantillo at UFC 268 on Nov. 6.” uploaddate=”2021-11-04″ thumbnailurl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19027/thumb/” contenturl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19027/sd/893888.mp4″]
Although it may not be getting the same type of love and attention as some of the other fights at UFC 268, Shane Burgos vs Billy Quarantillo is a fight that could blow minds and steal the show in Madison Square Garden tomorrow night.
UFC 268 has an absolutely stacked main card. A couple of championship rematch fights lead the way in the top two bouts. A hugely important bout between lightweight killers Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler could decide the next contender. Plus, New Jersey native, and UFC legend, Frankie Edgar competes for just the second time in the world’s most famous arena. However, the other bout on the night’s main card five is one that is made for mayhem.
The term savage gets thrown around a lot when it comes to entertaining fighters in the Octagon. Sometimes it’s warranted and sometimes it’s hyperbole. When it comes to the participants in Saturday’s featherweight featured bout, savage is the perfect term for New Yorkers Shane Burgos (13-3) and Billy Quarantillo (16-3).
If you have not seen either man fight yet, you are doing yourself a disservice as an MMA fan. Especially since the fourteenth-ranked “Hurricane” already has nine fights in the UFC under his belt. However, at UFC 268 you have a chance to regain some fan respect, and it’s at the perfect time because these two fellas from different parts of the “Empire State” fight with an aggressive grit that is second nature to a born and bred New Yorker.
Yet, while they have that same double-tough NY DNA, both men go about getting W’s in slightly different ways.
The “Assassin-Zombie” Shane Burgos
Burgos is an absolute menace in a cage fight. His style is a mix of assassin and zombie. He is constantly coming forward as he looks to pressure opponents into mistakes and looks for openings to land his very sound kickboxing. There are a bunch of fighters in the sport that like to push a hard pace and make scraps a battle of will and guts. But Burgos does it with slick striking and a wealth experience that often puts him in a fight’s driver’s seat. Where he is the one deciding when to take the foot off the gas. The guys a seriously tough out.
Some will look at this bout, as the 30-year-old returns from a difficult knockout loss to Edson Barboza in May, and wonder if Burgos will come back a different fighter than he was. They’ll think that the scary delayed end to that fight will force him to change his style, maybe use his grappling gifts more. Think again, especially after losing two straight for the first time ever. He took six months away, saw every doctor he could and has been given the all-clear to return to the Octagon and put in some work in the damage department on Nov. 6.
The “Chaos-Zombie” Billy Quarantillo
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But waiting for him will be another zombie-like talent in Quarantillo. A man that I’ll call the chaos-zombie. The man also known as the “Cat Daddy” isn’t quite as polished as his opponent when it comes to technique, but that’s also sort of the genius method to his madness. He’s similar to Brandon Royval in throwing strikes from all angles, to where it’s something akin to chaos-magic (for you Marvel-types out there). He glamors opponents into thinking they might be in a safe space, and then he drops a hammer down.
Quarantillo just isn’t a backup and revise the game plan kind of guy. He is going to play unstoppable force to Burgos’ immovable object. It will be beautiful.
If this fight doesn’t win a performance bonus of some kind at UFC 268, then the card will be what matchmakers hoped for. And that’s absolute violent havoc. And that is certainly a big win for all the fans watching tomorrow night. However, considering the toughness both have shown throughout their careers, and the blood and sweat they have spilled in the Octagon, this fellow New Yorker is certainly hoping for both to score some extra greenbacks.
And honestly, I expect no less from these two zombie magicians of caged mayhem.
UFC 268 kicks at 6 pm ET with the preliminary portion of the card. The US $69.99 main card pay-per-view follows at 10 pm ET exclusively on ESPN+.
