Ricardo Lamas Says Jose Aldo Will Beat Conor McGregor

Number four ranked UFC featherweight and one time title challenger Ricardo Lamas will face Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 78, as ‘The Nightmare’ finaly gets his featherweight wish against ‘The Bully’. Lamas, most recently starched by Chad Mendes in April, will look to rekindle the form that once saw him ride a four fight spree in to his UFC 169 title fight with Jose Aldo. He’ll face a tough brawler in Sanchez, who will himself be rolling the dice at this late stage of his career.

The co-main event at The Ultimate Fight Latin America 2 finale (Fight Night 78) exhibits two fighters of Mexican descent that always show up to fight, but Lamas insists he’ll be keeping it technical against the haymaker-happy ‘Nightmare’. Check out the quotes from Lamas’ appearance on InsideMMA:

“I’m not going to be at number four for long. The fight is going to be in Mexico, where my mother was born. Diego said he wanted to fight me, the UFC put 2 and 2 together and I said ‘Hey, if you want it then come get it. The big thing is not to get lured in to a street fight like he wants, I have to stay technical and make sure I use my footwork and angles to stay faster.”

“I’m 100% focused on Diego right now because he is still very dangerous, he could lose all of the rounds and then knock you out in the last round, so I’m very focused on him right now.”

Sanchez will without doubt want to make this as ugly as possible, but if Ross Pearson vs Sanchez taught us anything, apart from that robbery is still alive in MMA, it’s that a technical striker will always have the advantage against Sanchez’s style. The difference here though is that ‘The Nightmare’ might have a power advantage, depending on how well he cuts to featherweight for his divisional debut.

“It’s going to be a great fight. Conor McGregor has a very unique style, but if I’m going to choose one of them, it’s going to be Jose Aldo. He just has too many weapons in is arsenal for McGregor to deal with. The Mendes vs. Edgar fight is another great fight, both great wrestlers, but it’s going to be who throws first and more is going to win that fight. It’s a question of who outworks whom in that fight.”

So Lamas finds himself still in the top five, but badly needing a win against a guy who will be in his face the whole fight. Although initial reports on Sanchez’s weight have been positive, there’s really no telling how he’ll show up on fight night. ‘The Bully’ is a tough opponent on any day, but coming in drained and under powered could prove fatal for ‘The Nightmare’s’ fighting future.

On the other side of that, Sanchez could relaunch his career by taking out a top five 145-pounder in his featherweight debut. Here’s how the UFC Fight Night 78 card is shaping up so far:

Event: UFC Fight Night 78: “Brown vs. Gastelum”
Date: Sat., Nov. 21, 2015 on FOX Sports 1
Location: Monterrey Arena in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

FOX Sports 1 Main Event:

170 lbs.: Matt Brown vs. Kelvin Gastelum

Undercard/Prelims (FOX Sports 1, UFC Fight Pass):

145 lbs.: Ricardo Lamas vs. Diego Sanchez
125 lbs.: Henry Cejudo vs. Jussier Formiga
155 lbs.: Efrain Escudero vs. Leandro Silva
135 lbs.: Erik Perez vs. Damian Stasiak
170 lbs.: Bartosz Fabinski vs. Hector Urbina
155 lbs.: Valmir Lazaro vs. Michel Prazeres
145 lbs.: Gabriel Benitez vs. Andre Fili
155 lbs.: TUF: “Latin America 2” lightweight final
170 lbs.: TUF: “Latin America 2” welterweight final