Ricardo Lamas off UFC 162, Tim Boetsch-Mark Munoz promoted to main card

Ricardo Lamas will not remain on next month’s UFC 162 card, and instead a preliminary-card fight between Tim Boetsch and Mark Munoz will be promoted to the main card. That fight had been set as the featured prelim on FX.

The announcement was part of Tuesday night’s edition of “UFC Tonight” on FUEL TV, with correspondnet Ariel Helwani getting word from UFC officials.

UFC 162 takes place July 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The show is headlined by a middleweight title fight between champion Anderson Silva and top contender Chris Weidman. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

This past Saturday at UFC 161 in Winnipeg, UFC President Dana White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Lamas (13-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) will be paid his show money for next month’s UFC 162 event in Las Vegas – even though he’s not likely to remain on the card. White said the promotion was actively seeking an opponent for him after original opponent Chan Sung Jung (13-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) was pulled from the fight on Thursday to face Jose Aldo for the featherweight title at UFC 163 in August.

It’s the second straight time Lamas has been passed over for a possible title shot. The Chicago-area fighter has won four straight, including a brutal first-round stoppage of Erik Koch in January. After that fight, he thought he had done enough to earn a shot at Aldo – and he even was miked up cageside the following week at UFC 156 to watch Aldo beat Frankie Edgar, meaning even the UFC thought there was a chance that would be the next fight they’d make.

But after that fight, Anthony Pettis, who had been named the next challenger for Benson Henderson the week prior in Chicago, decided he wanted to drop to featherweight to challenge Aldo. And with the potential for that blockbuster superfight, Lamas was passed over. This past week, when Pettis pulled out of the UFC 163 headlining fight vs. Aldo with a knee injury, the UFC decided to go with “The Korean Zombie” instead of Lamas.

Now Lamas may be faced with a dilemma that is growing more common in the UFC – sit back and wait and hope he’s offered the winner of Aldo-Jung after their Aug. 3 fight, or take another fight in the meantime to stay active, and risk an injury or a loss.

Boetsch (16-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) will look to get back into the win column after a third-round TKO loss to Constantinos Philippou in December at UFC 155. That loss snapped a four-fight win streak for him that included a split-decision win over Hector Lombard.

Munoz (12-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) will return for the first time in almost a year when he meets Boetsch. He had a four-fight win streak snapped in July 2012 when he was brutally stopped by Weidman with a second-round knockout.

The full UFC 162 card now includes:

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman – for middleweight title
• Frankie Edgar vs. Charles Oliveira
• Roger Gracie vs. Tim Kennedy
• Dennis Siver vs. Cub Swanson
• Tim Boetsch vs. Mark Munoz

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)

• Andrew Craig vs. Chris Leben
• Norman Parke vs. Kazuki Tokudome
• Edson Barboza vs. Rafaello Oliveira
• Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Dave Herman

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 7 p.m. ET)

• Seth Baczynski vs. Brian Melancon
• David Mitchell vs. Mike Pierce

For more on UFC 162 and UFC 163, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Ricardo Lamas)