October 15 was supposed to see the return of former UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC Welterweight Champion BJ Penn, who was slated to fight Ricardo Lamas at UFC Fight Night 97. However, the event was canceled after Penn suffered an injury.
Lamas recently appeared on The MMA Hour, where he discussed how he found out that the entire event was called off.
"I was actually literary packing up my car in Miami to get back to Chicago and I jumped on Twitter really quick, and saw some tweets of guys, you know, reporting that B.J. [Penn] had pulled out of the fight," Lamas said. “So I got on the phone and started texting my brother, who manages me and all that, so it took him a little bit to get in touch with Shawn, and Shawn said, ‘Yeah, BJ is hurt right now, we're trying to get him to go to the doctor'. And I think it was maybe the day after that they had canceled the whole card, so I might have been in route to Chicago when I found out all about it."
Lamas also talked about how discouraging it was to be training so long for the fight, just for the opportunity to be taken away.
"It sucked, man," Lamas said. "I literary went through an entire camp. I was done training. The only thing that was left was to cut the weight. I was already holding my weight pretty well and to hear that, it stinks, especially with the holidays coming up. This is what I do to make a living and I want to get my family a nice Christmas, and to have that all cancelled when you put in so much work it's discouraging. But I have to push that out of my head, and I know the UFC will make it right, and I believe that everything will workout."
Besides losing out on a main event payday, Lamas also is upset he lost the opportunity to fight a legend in the sport.
"B.J. is a huge name, he's a legend in the sport and I never thought I'd be fighting a guy like that when I came in the UFC, especially with us being in different weight classes, him finally retiring, and then coming back," Lamas said. "So it was a huge opportunity for me. He's a big name and, you know, headlining a UFC event in Manila, I was really excited about that and it's just one of those things. I don't want to dwell on it, I just want to put it behind me and move forward, and see whats next."
Lamas will be returning to action at UFC Fight Night 98, where he will be facing Charles Oliveira in a main card fight. BJ Penn’s next move is unknown at this time.
