UFC's Ricardo Lamas pauses post-fight debrief to rip Nik Lentz a new one

Ricardo Lamas sounds like he’s gearing up for his next fight, even though he’s got a date with a doctor before he steps back into the cage.

The UFC featherweight broke his thumb in the first round of a bout with Hacran Dias (21-3-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) at this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 44, which took place at AT&T Center in San Antonio and aired live on FOX Sports 1.

Despite his physical setback, Lamas won a unanimous, if lackluster, decision.

“It was an ugly performance, but under the circumstances, I tried to do what I could to finish him,” he told MMAjunkie Radio. “But Hacran is a tough dude, and I knew that going into the fight.”

On Thursday, Lamas will visit with a specialist to determine the quickest path to recovery. Although an emergency room doctor told him he would need a plate in his hand, he hopes he’ll only need to have it in a cast.

“I had to change it up a little bit, and so that was one of the reasons I was lacking on my performance,” he said. “But luckily, I have another chance to come back and make up for that.”

When he’s cleared to fight, he’s more than willing to face a featherweight who wasn’t too impressed with his recent performance.

Lamas (14-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC) reacted angrily to a callout from Nik Lentz (25-6-2 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) following this past Saturday’s event, saying “if he wants some, he can get some.”

Lentz tweeted that fights with Lamas and Cub Swanson, who beat Jeremy Stephens in the headliner, would be “easy money.”

While Lamas is aware of the obvious ploy for attention, he’s still bothered by it.

“First of all, this kid doesn’t even have heart,” he said. “I’ve heard stories about this guy; my boy Luis Palomino, ‘Baboon,’ was down at (American Top Team) for a while, sparred with Nik one time, messed him up, and then Nik wanted to duck him for the rest of the sparring sessions he was there. They would not let ‘Baboon’ spar with him. To me, that shows no heart.

“When I go up against somebody and they give me a licking in a sparring session, you bet your ass I’m coming after you the next time. There’s no way you’re not going to let me spar you again, because I’m going to come after you until I get you. That just shows if you have heart or not, and this kid has no heart.

“He goes on Twitter saying, ‘I (would) beat Ricardo Lamas or Cub Swanson easy. Easy money.’ I know he’s popping his mouth off to get a better fight, but there’s no need for that.”

During his fight with Dias, Lamas said his hand became numb after the first round and gave him trouble for the remainder of the fight.

“When I had him up against the fence, I was spending most of my time trying to figure out a way to keep the lock on my hands, because it was hard to grab and hold him down,” he said. “I think I did a good job of keeping the pressure on him. I feel I did a good job of tiring him out with him having defend all those takedowns.”

Still, after a decision loss to champ Jose Aldo in his previous outing, the performance wasn’t exactly a statement. Lamas needs to earn more decisive wins to get a rematch with the featherweight kingpin.

Fortunately for him, he is practical about his shortcomings and willing to take them on in order to get another title shot.

“That was an opportunity of a lifetime right there that could have changed my entire life, and unfortunately, I let it slip through my fingers,” Lamas said. “So I’ll always think about that. I think about every loss that I’ve ever had. You think about it, you make the adjustments and improve and you move on to the next one.”

Right now, that sounds like a meeting with Lentz if UFC matchmakers think it’s a good fight. Lentz is 4-1 since dropping to featherweight from lightweight with his only loss a decision against current No. 1 contender.

The two could meet to determine who stays in the title picture and who’s out. As soon as he’s healthy, Lamas would be hard pressed to turn down an opponent that would keep him up in the rankings.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 44, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.