MMA Odds and Ends for Tuesday: Lamas Off Of UFC 162 Card

Ricardo Lamas The UFC today announced that featherweight contender Ricardo Lamas, who was left without an opponent at UFC 162 when Chan Sung Jung was yanked off of the card, will not fight a replacement fighter at the upcoming event and thus he’s been scratched from the card entirely. As well, it was announced that even though Lamas will not be competing at the upcoming fight card, which is set to take play July 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV, he will still be paid his show money. This is extremely disappointing new for Lamas, who had been preparing his body for the past two months for a three-round war against Jung. But when the UFC took Jung off the card and gave him the title shot against UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 163 after Anthony Pettis got hurt, Lamas was put in limbo as he was told he should still be training as if he were been fighting. Instead, though, Lamas will now not get to fight and he’s been put on the shelf indefinitely. Having your fight yanked away from you when you’re prepared to fight is one of the worst things that can happen to a fighter and hopefully Lamas can stay mentally focused and keep his body physically attune because this whole situation was not his fault at all. In fact, I believe that Lamas is getting a very bad deal here because, even though he will get his show money, it’s likely that he would have beat Jung and therefore he doesn’t get the chance to earn his win bonus. And, worst of all, the fans don’t get to see one of the best fighters at his weight class in the world compete. It’s possible that Lamas will get the next title shot against the winner of Aldo vs. Jung but it’s also possible that another contender in the featherweight division, such as Cub Swanson or Chad Mendes, gets an impressive win in the next month or two and jumps ahead of Lamas in the featherweight ranks. But that would be pretty ridiculous since Lamas has proven himself to be the No. 1 contender with four-straight wins at 145 pounds over Swanson, Matt Grice, Hatsu Hioki and Erik Koch, and he really should be next in line to compete to see who really is the best in the world at the weight. It’s likely that Lamas will just get to enjoy his summer and will fight one of the top featherweight contenders — or the champion — when he returns to the cage later this year, and with so much time to work on and keep improving his game, don’t be surprised if this is the man who eventually wears the gold around his waist at 145 pounds, especially if Aldo moves up to 155. By the way, now that Lamas is off of the card, Tim Boetsch vs. Mark Munoz was promoted from the prelims to the main card for UFC 162. UFC 167 Likely For November In Las Vegas UFC Tonight reported that the upcoming UFC welterweight title bout between Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks will take place on November 16 in Las Vegas, NV. The event, which is likely to be titled UFC 167, could serve as the UFC’s 20th anniversary show so expect this event to feature an extremely stacked card that could even include a second title fight in the co-main event behind GSP vs. Hendricks.

Written by Adam Martin.

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