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#2 Featherweight: Josh Emmett vs. Shane Burgos

Shane Burgos is one of the world's most dangerous Featherweights

This Featherweight clash could easily have main evented a UFC Fight Night or ESPN card. Both men are well entrenched in the top ten at 145lbs and both have put on some of the more exciting fights in the division in recent memory.

Emmett burst onto the scene back in 2017. He came into the UFC largely under the radar in 2016 as a Lightweight, but dropped to 145lbs in late 2017 and then ended the year by taking a fight with highly ranked contender Ricardo Lamas on late notice. With very few people favouring him to win, ‘The Grim Reaper’ shocked everyone by turning Lamas’ lights out with a crushing left hook.

A loss in early 2018 to Jeremy Stephens then derailed his momentum – and left him on the shelf for over a year with serious facial injuries – but 2019 saw him bounce back with a pair of impressive wins over Michael Johnson and Mirsad Bektic.

Essentially a wrestle-boxer who favours his striking over his wrestling game, Emmett’s insane punching power is his biggest strength. He’s not the most technical striker in the division by any means – he was being pieced up by Johnson for the majority of their fight – but that huge power is ridiculous equaliser, and he carries it in both hands, too.

Burgos meanwhile is a little different. ‘The Hurricane’ is a student of Tiger Schulmann’s MMA – the same camp that produced the likes of Jimmie Rivera and Lyman Good. An aggressive striker, Burgos tends to look to walk his opponent down and throw nasty combos at them, and then counter anything they come back with.

For the native of New York, pressure is the name of the game. And he’s used that style to great effect in the UFC thus far, going 6-1 in the promotion with his only loss coming to Calvin Kattar. And in that fight, Burgos was actually winning until Kattar caught him with some heavy shots in the third round.

His biggest win? Probably Cub Swanson. A devilishly tricky striker to face off with, Burgos was still able to walk him down and land enough offense – largely by using his jab – to edge a decision.

This one is tricky to call because you can make a case for both men. On one hand, Burgos’s style seems tailor-made to simply break the cruder Emmett down over three rounds. He’s got a ramrod jab, has a 5” reach advantage over ‘The Grim Reaper’, and should be able to cut inside with combinations to pick him apart.

However, ‘The Hurricane’ doesn’t have the greatest footwork in the division and can be left open for a heavy counterpunch. And while he’s only been stopped by Kattar, Emmett has the kind of fight-changing power capable of taking anyone out in one shot. And as Burgos looks to overwhelm his opponents with volume, it only means he’ll be more open to eating that big shot.

In the end though, Burgos and his team should be well aware of Emmett’s crazy power, and so if he can be very careful – and probably fight a little more conservatively than he usually does – then he ought to be able to land enough offense to win a decision. If he gets drawn into a brawl though, this could easily be Emmett’s fight. I’m taking Burgos, but it should be tight.

The Pick: Burgos via unanimous decision