Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight title challenger, Ricardo Lamas (15-4), is set to welcome fellow Mexican Diego Sanchez (25-7) to the 145-pound division tonight (Sat., Nov. 21, 2015) at UFC Fight Night 78, which takes place inside Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico.
Their FOX Sports 1-televised co-main event materialized after "The Nightmare" called out "The Bully" last May, looking for an Octagon dance partner for his eventual Featherweight debut.
Lamas, 33, is coming off of a disappointing technical knockout loss to former No. 1 contender Chad Mendes back in April, marking the third time the MMA Masters representative was felled by strikes. Since then, the Chicago, Ill., native welcomed a baby boy Abel to the family, while keeping tabs on the division from afar.
He recently spoke with MMAmania.com about the Mendes loss, "Money's" next fight against Frankie Edgar, Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, Sanchez and much more.
Tell us about what's going on in your life since April. Have you been watching some of the other fights in the featherweight division?
RL: Since my last fight, a lot has changed. My son was born. He was born June 22nd, so that was a huge change. I spent a lot of time right after the fight getting ready for that because my fight was in April. That's been the biggest change. As far as the Featherweight division, I don't know, there's some good fights coming up between top contenders with Chad Mendes and Frankie Edgar. Obviously, the Aldo and McGregor fight. Max Holloway has been on a tear also. The Featherweight division is looking tough as always.
I see that you're training with Luis Palomino at MMA Masters, who's preparing for his own fight against Rich Patishnock a night before you face Diego at WSOF 25, how has that gone?
RL: Yeah, he's actually sitting next to me right now. It's funny because every time I come down here, we both have a fight like the same weekend. It's good to have somebody right there who's pushing just as hard as you're.
Are you splitting time between MMA Masters and Top Notch Fitness?
RL: Pretty much for the first three weeks to a month of camp I do in Illinois at Top Notch and a couple other places. I really use it to get myself back in shape and to prepare myself to come down here. Once I get down here in Miami, it's like a full sprint up until the fight. The last month down here in Miami is like balls to the wall training.
Let's get a quick health update. It's almost two weeks out from the fight, how are you doing?
RL: I'm doing great -- there are no injuries, which is rare. Going into a fight, it's very rare to go into a fight without any nagging injuries or anything like that. I mean, the worst thing that happened was I got a cold last week, but I'm already over that. I'm feeling good and I'm ready to go.
Have you done anything differently to prepare for Diego's fighting style?
RL: I haven't had to do anything differently. The biggest difference is just kind of tailoring my movement for a southpaw because Diego is a southpaw and just working a lot of footwork and movement. I don't want to get lured into a street brawl here and Diego is pretty known for that so I just got to stay technical and be faster than him.
What did you take from your loss versus Chad and improved upon for this fight?
RL: I just wasn't patient enough. I was doing good for the first couple of minutes with moving side to side and making him miss. I just rushed the exchange right there and he backed me up against the fence. Instead of moving out of the way, I went in and only one of two things are going to happen: You're either going to land your punch, or your opponent is going to land his. Chad landed his first. It's just part of the game. It happens to everybody. You can't go through this game without getting clipped a few good times.
How close was your bout against Diego to becoming the new main event in Monterrey after Matt Brown went down?
RL: I have no idea because we didn't hear anything from the UFC. It was just -- I retweeted it to put it out there. Kelvin [Gastelum] he put in the time as one of the coaches for TUF: "Latin America 2" and I think it's pretty traditional for them to have one of the coaches main event on one of those shows.
When you watched Conor defeat Chad in July, did you see the hype somewhat fulfilled?
RL: You're talking about a guy coming in on two weeks' notice, who wasn't training and hunting -- doing this and that. I think it would've been a different fight had Chad had a full camp. The thing that was fulfilled in that -- it showed everybody that Conor has no wrestling and he got beat up for the first round when Chad was half-gassed, but he stuck with it and fought through. You have to give him that I guess. He came out with the win. The hype, to me, wasn't fulfilled though.
How so, was it because the fight exposed a flaw in Conor's game that many thought was there?
RL: He looked like a fish out of water on his back and was getting popped left and right. He was eating elbows and I think Chad just got a little too desperate going for the submission when it wasn't -- Conor saw it coming ... everybody saw it coming. I think it was just a last attempt because he was running out of gas, or he was out of gas. That was the turning point of the fight.
What were your thoughts on the fight being contested for an interim featherweight belt?
RL: I don't think he's a legitimate champion. I think that the UFC was a little fast to put an interim fight together, but I think the card was so big that they had to do it to, I don't know, fulfill the hype around the fight I guess.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming fight between Chad and Frankie?
RL: I've watched all their fights. I watched Frankie's last fight against Urijah Faber and I saw the Cub Swanson fight as well. It could go either way. I think the guy that goes after it more is going to win the fight. They're both going to come in, in-shape. They're both always in-shape. They're wrestlers, but both have different kinds of striking. Frankie likes to stick and move a lot and Chad has those power punches so it's going to be interesting to watch.
With the rate in which fighters are getting injured, and seeing that you've had to pull out of a fight before, I wanted to get your thoughts on what goes through a fighter's mind before he/she takes action?
RL: It's tough. Injuries come -- I've fought injured. I've had to pull out. There was one fight in my career that I had to pull out of because I tore my pectoral muscle and there was no way I could fight. There are some injuries that you can fight through and you can still show up on fight night and then there's some -- your health is number one over everything. We're going in there and risking our own health to put on a show for these people so we have to keep that number one in our heads. I'm sure all the other fighter's understand.
What is your opinion on the Reebok deal? Do you like the clothing?
RL: I think they could do a lot better with the gear and the uniforms. The unveiling show seemed very "Zoolander" to me, where the fighters walked out and the weird voice saying the fighter's names. Apart from that -- the sponsorship money -- I really wish they would've fixed the deal to allow us to keep at least some of our sponsors. I understand if it's a clothing sponsor, it could be conflicting with Reebok, but other sponsor that aren't, I just wish that we were able to keep them.
Latin MMA is on the rise. When you first got into MMA, did you think that the success you, as well as other prominent Latin fighters, have attained was possible?
RL: When I got into MMA, I didn't even know how far I was going to get. It started off as; I'm going to have one amateur fight and get it out of my system. I wanted a couple more and then I wanted to turn pro and then I wanted to do this and that. It just kept growing. I think that's just reminiscent of the sport itself. It just keeps growing. It's a young sport that pretty much broke through in the early '90s so it's growing rapidly and it's going to continue to grow.
Do you have your eyes on anyone in UFC, or outside of it, that's the next big thing in Latin MMA?
RL: There's this kid, who trains in Chicago that I know, Horacio [Gutierrez], and he's good, man. He's a real fighter. He's in the Finale and he'll be fighting in Monterrey.
One fighter I've spoken with, Francisco Rivera, has said that he's focused on developing Latin fighters out in California. Do you have the same desire, or plan on opening your own gym?
RL: Yeah, actually. Pretty soon here; I'll probably will make that next step to opening my own gym. I'm not going to keep it restricted to only Hispanic fighters, or anything like that. Anybody who wants to put in the time and dedicated -- who wants to learn the sport -- is going to be welcome and it's definitely something that's on the horizon for me.
What are your expectations for Diego in this division? Do you see him having success?
RL: We'll have to see, man. I saw him in Mexico when we were doing promos for the fight and he looked slimmer than usual. The first fight he's going to have is with that scale, for sure, because he's cutting a lot of weight. I think the weight cut could affect him, we'll see. It's not something that I'm banking on. I'm still training my ass off like it's going to be the best Diego Sanchez ever.
Switching gears to USADA. Have you been drug tested at all for this fight?
RL: I haven't, yet. It's funny because a teammate of mine, Josh Samman, they came and tested him at his house and then they showed up at the gym and he was like, 'Oh, you're here to test Ricardo?' and they were like, 'Nope, we're here to test you.' I don't know, I guess I don't look that beefy.
How happy are you with the new protocols in place by USADA?
RL: I think it's great. It's something that needed to be done because there were a lot of guys who were sing steroids or whatever and we can't have that in this sport. We have to clean it up and make it legitimate. I think it's a great idea to be so strict on these drug tests.
Before we go, could you give us your prediction for the upcoming Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Alvarez fight?
RL: I thought both of them look pretty well. I think Canelo is going to pull this one out. He's younger and I think he's stronger. Cotto might be a little more agile and sneaky, but I don't know. For some reason, I keep leaning toward Canelo in this fight.
Lastly, what's your prediction for the Aldo vs. McGregor unification fight next month?
RL: McGregor's going to get his legs kicked out from under him. It depends. I'm hoping that Aldo doesn't get lured into this whole mental game because that's happened to a lot of McGregor's opponents. When you fight with emotion and you fight angry, you don't fight well. Hopefully, Aldo will fight with a clear head.
For the complete UFC Fight Night 78: "Magny vs. Gastelum" card and results, click here and here.