[NEF PRESS RELEASE]
Portland, Maine (January 25, 2022)
Four years are a relative eternity to a man in his 20s.
There's a reason Olympiads and undergraduate degrees cover that much space on the calendar. It allows time for the world to change, and hopefully to get meaningful work done, to grow stronger and wiser.
In the world of mixed martial arts, that gap on the resume is a double-edged sword. It could create some level of cage rust. Depending on the discipline of the fighter in question, though, it's space that could be used to watch and learn, sharpen skills, or fill gaps in one's repertoire.
Ryan Burgess is banking on the latter list when he ends his 1,439-day break between appearances in the New England Fights hexagon on Saturday, February 12, 2022. Burgess (3-2), out of Mexico, Maine, will challenge Tyler Smythe (3-1) for the organization's amateur flyweight title at “NEF 46: Decade of Dominance.”
The card is set for Aura in Portland, Maine, with an opening bell time of 7 p.m.
Burgess wasted no time after watching his fellow River Valley native and Mountain Valley High School product Caleb Austin drop the belt to Smythe via fourth-round technical knockout on Nov. 12 to text NEF co-owner and matchmaker Matt Peterson and express his interest in coming out of “retirement.”
“It was more just to prove that I'm one of the best flyweights in New England, because I really think I am,” Burgess said. “I've been putting the work in. Obviously, I haven't been able to showcase that in quite a few years, but it's not like I stopped. I'm ready to go out there and put on a show for everyone and see what happens.”
