The last time Shane Burgos hit the octagon was two weeks before the Fourth of July, when he and opponent Josh Emmett brought out the fireworks early.

The two UFC featherweight contenders went fast and furious for 15 minutes, Burgos stalking and pressuring with his typical high-volume striking output and Emmett answering with heavy return fire. The action escalated every round, with ever-increasing totals for strikes attempted and landed and each leaving it all out there on the mat by the time the bout went the distance at UFC Apex. 

And while the bout is generally recognized as the three-round fight of 2020, for Burgos (13-2, 10 finishes), neither that distinction nor his $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus is enough consolation for the fact that Emmett left with his hand raised.

“I appreciate that everyone thought it was a good fight, and I’m happy that I’m able to do that and be that kind of fighter that people want to see fight, but I’m just so disappointed in myself after that last one, honestly,” Burgos, who grew up in the Monroe Houses in The Bronx, told The Post over the phone on Tuesday.

While that fight didn’t go Burgos’ way, with all three judges seeing the razor-close first round and the lopsided third frame — when he was twice knocked down by punches — for Emmett, the 30-year-old was able to parlay his impressive effort in defeat into a fight he’s genuinely excited about against Edson Barboza. Their three-rounder is slated to open the UFC 262 pay-per-view main card on Saturday in Houston, with Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler headlining to decide who wins the vacant UFC lightweight title.

“This is like my world title fight,” Burgos says of the chance to face Barboza, who last year dropped down to 145 pounds after a long run of success at 155 pounds. “This is the biggest opportunity of my career, by far. That’s not to disrespect any other opponent, but everyone knows who Edson Barboza is. I’ve been watching this guy since I was in high school. He’s been in the title picture at lightweight forever.”

The loss to Emmett, which he feels he let “slip through my fingers” provided a valuable lesson for Burgos: Don’t stray from the strategy.

“I just got away from my game plan. I got way too caught up in the moment of that fight,” Burgos said. “I knew how much of a back-and-forth fight it was, I knew how much fun I was having, and I got caught up in having fun instead of focusing on the task at hand.”

Chief among the errors in approach, in Burgos’ mind, was not taking better advantage of his compromised opponent. About 25 seconds into the fight, Emmett’s left knee visibly gave out. A few days after the fight, the winner revealed he had suffered the following: full anterior cruciate ligament tear, medial collateral ligament sprain with partial tearing, Baker’s cyst rupture, “focal impact fracture of femur on the lateral” and “chondral defect (cartilage) on tibia laterally matching impact area.”

Burgos landed 40 strikes to Emmett’s legs, many to the blown-out knee. But he maintains that the injury had little effect on his approach, which he rues in retrospect.

“It should have [changed my strategy],” Burgos said. “I don’t want to exploit a weakness or anything, but you kind of do, at the end of the day. His knee was bummed, and I should have been kicking the entire time. I should have just stuck with the low kick and just focused on that the entire time. But, like I said, I got caught up in the moment.”

While Emmett’s return to the octagon hinges on how well he can rehabilitate his collective knee injuries, Burgos said he left with only a cut under his eye and was back in the gym training grappling by Monday, the day after getting home from Las Vegas.

For Burgos, though, his recovery from the bout was more of a mental exercise.

“It was more mental, being so down and pissed at myself,” he said.

With the disappointing result behind him, Burgos, who before sixth grade moved from the Monroe Houses to Orange County’s Monroe, N.Y., is “honored” for the opportunity to face such a venerable fighter in the 35-year-old Barboza (21-9, 13 finishes) on Saturday, knowing what a win could do for his viability as a contender at featherweight. The New Yorker got goosebumps when he took the call about the booking, 

Although he’s lost five of his past seven, Barboza is coming off a clear decision victory over Makwan Amirkhani in October and the previous two losses — one at featherweight, the other at lightweight — came via split decisions that could easily have gone his way.

And while Barboza spent most of his career at a heavier weight class, Burgos is among the larger featherweights on the UFC roster. At 5-foot-11 and with a big frame, he admits he can weigh more than 180 pounds between fights. His opponent is listed at the same height and could conceivably appear to be the slightly smaller man when the octagon door closes behind them on fight night.

“This is exactly what I want. I want big fights like this, man,” says an energized Burgos. “These are the fights that wake you up in the morning; the fights that keep you up at night. These are the fights that make me get my ass on the treadmill, get those sprints on.”

Barboza’s bread and butter is his striking, particularly the way he attacks the legs and body. Among his 12 (T)KOs are two from body blows and three via leg kicks, plus a spectacular spinning wheel kick KO nine years ago during his rise from prospect to contender at 155 pounds. Just hours after touching down in Houston, Burgos was already bracing for his opponent’s highlight reel to play all week in the leadup to their bout.

But the book on Barboza, a noted kicker, has been pressure and not allowing the Brazilian to stay at his preferred distance are keys to victory. On paper, that lines up well for the aggressive Burgos, who ranks No. 4 all-time in the UFC in strikes landed per minute (7.31), according to UFC Stats. Against Emmett, he landed 148 total strikes for an average of nearly 10 a minute.

“Always forward: That’s my mentality,” Burgos said. “That’s my life motto. I live by that: always forward. So as soon as the referee says ‘Go,’ I’m gonna be in his face from the first bell until the last bell.”