Few Featherweight fighters have a resume comparable to Ricardo Lamas but in truth, he’s not in too much of a rush to tell you about it.
At UFC 238, Lamas takes on Calvin Kattar in a key fight for his title aspirations. However, Lamas is far from new to this stage, pointing to his well-rounded skill-set as a major factor of his success. “I tend to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in a fight,” he told Fightful’s Harry Kettle.
“I don’t shy away from anything. If someone gets hurts and I see that, I’m automatically jumping on him looking to finish the fight. I have the 2nd most finishes in the Featherweight division right now in the UFC. I think that’s something a lot of people look past because I’m not very well marketed by the UFC. That could be a little bit my fault because I’m not a big mouth, I’m not a loudmouth like some of these other people are. That’s just not me, that’s just not my style.
“I tend to let my fighting speak for itself but I pride myself on being a well-rounded athlete and I think I’m dangerous no matter where the fight goes.” Regardless of his promotional push, Lamas has been a relevant factor in the 145 lbs division for years now, challenging Jose Aldo all the way back in February 2014. However, ‘The Bully’ recently tasted consecutive defeats for the first time in his career, dropping two straight before rebounding against Darren Elkins.
When asked about the pressure of that prior form, Lamas remained unsurprisingly unmoved. “Adjusting to losing and having to bounce back is something that I learned back in college from wrestling. There were times where we’d be wrestling at a tournament, we’d have 5 or 6 matches in one day and one round, you may lose a match and within an hour you’d have to put it behind you and get back on track, wrestle again and get back on the winning track.
"The only difference in MMA is the length of time in-between each loss. You never feel right again until you get back in that win column so two losses, back-to-back over the course of a year wasn’t fun but I knew in my heart that I’d get back on the winning track and that I deserved to be where I’m at in this division.”
Now back in the win column after all, Lamas will look to start a fresh streak of success but that begins with Kattar at UFC 238. The ESPN+ PPV event takes on June 8th and the full card can be found here.
For Lamas' full interview with Fightful's Harry Kettle, check out the video above.
