Ricardo Lamas Envisions An Unconcsious Conor McGregor
After recently submitting Dennis Bermudez at November 15’s UFC 180 from Mexico City, former UFC featherweight title challenger Ricardo “The Bully” Lamas is understandably looking for a big fight.
And not surprisingly, he’s hoping to face off with none other than Irish superstar Conor McGregor, the man whom nearly every top-ranked featherweight wants to get their hands on.
Like several 145-pound fighters, Lamas believes that the UFC has coddled McGregor along his rise to prominence by not pitting him against a top-level wrestler, of which there are several in the division. “The Bully” met up with Submission Radio to give his thoughts on “Notorious,” noting that his grinding wrestling style would give the flashy McGregor trouble:
“He’s a big name in the sport right now, so I think the UFC is kind of protecting him, not giving him wrestlers, and if he wants to get to a title shot I think he needs to fight a wrestler before doing that. I think the big difference will be my wrestling. All his flashy moves won’t work when he’s on his back getting punched in the face.”
Lamas may have a good point here, but it hasn’t exactly been McGregor’s skills in the cage that have defeated all four of his UFC opponents thus far. “Notorious” brings a blend of fighting skill and silver-tongued smack talk the likes of which we’ve never seen before him, but Lamas said all of the hype wouldn’t get to him:
“There’s nothing that that guy’s going to be able to say to me that’s going to get me riled up to the point where I’m like angry, you know what I mean? I grew up in a house with 6 older brothers; I got picked on my entire life. If he wants to play this game, he’s going to lose and he’s going to lose horribly. I’ve had a lot of practice at being made fun of and making fun of people back, and I’ve been doing that my whole life. So if he wants to play that game I’m fine with it.”
Back on track after his disheartening loss to Jose Aldo at UFC 169, Lamas is poised to make another run at the belt in 2015. He envisions a win over McGregor as part of that, and there’s only one way he thinks that fight would end:
“The ref pulling me off his unconscious body.”
It looks like Lamas is taking a page out of McGregor’s book by getting some counteractive trash talk started early, and that could definitely play out in his favor. We’ll have to wait and see if he in fact gets a fight against McGregor, but either way, big things could be on the horizon for “The Bully.”
Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
