Edmen Shabazyn releases his first statement following his loss to Derek Brunson.
Since joining the UFC following Dana White’s Contender Series, the middleweight has been rising throughout the division by dropping names such as Brad Tavares, Charles Byrd, and Darren Stewart.
Going into his fight against Brunson, many had Shabazyn penciled in as the winner for the middleweight bout; however, Brunson shocked everyone when he got a third-round TKO win over the undefeated fighter. This became Shabazyn’s first professional loss and now, the 22-year-old has finally addressed the surprising defeat this past Saturday.
Shabazyn doesn’t make any excuses over the way he fought this past weekend and congratulates Brunson over his victory in the main event:
Despite his first loss, Shabazyn still owns ten victories in his professional career thus far. Even though the middleweight is coming off a big loss, Dana White still sees a bright future ahead for the young prospect, though made notes of the issues he had on Saturday (Transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie):
“Don’t write off Shahbazyan’s prospects. Yeah, I think the kid is good,” White told reporters. “I’m not taking anything away from Brunson, but he looked gassed out in the second round. But you’ve got to credit Brunson for that, too. I think that Brunson mixed up his striking and his wrestling tonight like he used to. He also came in in great shape. He definitely came in better shape than Shahbazyan.”