Ricardo Lamas should be fighting for the UFC featherweight championship this weekend and getting the opportunity to prove he’s the #1 featherweight fighter in the whole world, but for whatever reason he isn’t.
UFC 163 takes place this Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in the main event, Jose Aldo defends his title against Chan Sung Jung, who is returning to the cage after a year-plus long layoff to face one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Jung wasn’t Aldo’s original opponent, but when Anthony Pettis pulled out of the fight with an injury, Jung was pulled from his scheduled UFC 162 match against Lamas and given the title shot instead of Lamas because he has a larger group of fans than the American. Although I believe Jung deserved a shot at the title because he earned it with his “Fight of the Year” victory over Dustin Poirier at UFC on FUEL TV 3, I think that Lamas should have gotten it first, because to me, his win streak over Erik Koch, Hatsu Hioki, Cub Swanson, and Matt Grice was more impressive than Jung’s win streak over Poirier, Mark Hominick, and Leonard Garcia, and the UFC had an equal opportunity to put either fighter into the bout with Aldo.
When you think about it, how can you even begin to compare Lamas’ streak to Jung’s? With Lamas, he scored wins over three current top-15 fighters (Koch, Hioki, Swanson) as well as a victory over Grice, who just had an amazing fight with Dennis Bermudez at UFC 157. With Jung, he has a win over one current top-15 fighter (Poirier) and two fighters who aren’t even in the UFC anymore (Hominick, Garcia).
So there’s no doubt in my mind that Lamas deserved the title shot first, because his run has been more impressive, and because he had just fought Koch in January and was cage-ready, unlike Jung, who hasn’t competed since May 2012, and who will be rusty.
Obviously the match between Aldo and Jung makes more sense in Brazil because Aldo matched up better against Jung than he does against Lamas, and the theme of the UFC Brazil cards is mismatches. That, combined with Jung likely drawing more tickets and fan interest, and it’s not shocking that he got the nod over Lamas.
But now Lamas is sitting on the sidelines while he watches Aldo and Jung duke it out this weekend. And if the UFC wants to make it up to Lamas, the best thing to do – and the fairest thing for everyone involved – is to give Lamas the next featherweight title shot later this year.
Sure there are fighters like Swanson, Chad Mendes, and Frankie Edgar who are making their mark at 145 pounds, but none of them deserve the title shot more than Lamas. So hopefully the UFC does him right and gives him the next featherweight title shot, so he can finally get the chance to show what he can do if given the opportunity – he’s earned that right.
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UFC 163: Aldo vs. Jung is due to take place on August 3, 2013 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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