Ricardo Lamas (13-2, 4-0 UFC) has gone from being in a top contenders’ fight at UFC 162 to officially off the card. Lamas was scheduled to fight ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung on July 6 from Las Vegas, but with an injury suffered by Anthony Pettis that forced him out of his UFC Featherweight Championship bout against Jose Aldo in August, Jung was chosen to fill the role of challenger against Aldo, which left Lamas without an opponent.
With no opponent found to face Lamas at UFC 162, he has officially been pulled off the card. The news was reported by Ariel Helwani on Tuesday’s edition of UFC Tonight on FUEL TV. Lamas will be given his show money and could be in line to fight the winner of Aldo vs. Jung.
Lamas was looking to score his fifth straight win against Jung. Lamas has won all four of his fights since moving over from the WEC to the UFC, with three of those wins coming by stoppage. He last competed in January when he scored a second-round TKO win over Erik Koch at UFC On FOX 6. That win followed wins over Hatsu Hioki, Cub Swanson and Matt Grice. Lamas is 7-1 over his last eight fights.
With a slot opening up on the night’s main card, a middleweight bout between Mark Munoz and Tim Boetsch has been bumped up from the preliminary card to the pay-per-view portion of the card. UFC 162 is headlined by UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva defending the title against top contender Chris Weidman.