Video: Ricardo Lamas still hoping for shot at Aldo, has no problem being Rocky

It’s beginning to be a bit of a tired story for Ricardo Lamas, and he knows it.

Lamas still is waiting for his next fight – and still is hoping that it will be for the UFC’s featherweight title against champion Jose Aldo. Meanwhile, Lamas is trying to keep busy since he knows that regardless of the fight he gets next, it likely will be more than a year in between trips to the octagon for him.

“We’ve been calling them and talking to them and they’ve pretty much told us they’re not announcing anything until Aldo’s cleared to fight,” Lamas on Monday told MMAjunkie.com Radio. “I’m hoping I get a call any day now, but I’m training in the meantime.”

Lamas (13-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) was booked to fight “The Korean Zombie,” Chan Sung Jung, at UFC 162 in July. But when Anthony Pettis was hurt and had to pull out of his featherweight title fight against Aldo at UFC 163, the “Zombie” was pulled from his fight with Lamas and challenged for the belt in Brazil.

That left Lamas off the card in Las Vegas. To get the fight with Jung, Lamas stopped previous No. 1 contender Erik Koch with a massive TKO in January at UFC on FOX 6 in front of his home fans in Chicago. It’s a win that Lamas thought at the time made him next in line. But Pettis stepped in front when he decided he wanted to move down from lightweight to challenge the champ.

So when Pettis pulled out, Lamas naturally thought he’d get the call to go to Brazil rather than Jung. That didn’t happen.

Because of that, he’s taking a cautious approach toward hoping his name is the one called when Aldo is ready to return after a foot injury suffered vs. Jung.

“That’s what I’m hoping for, but I’ve gotten my hopes up in the past and been let down,” Lamas said. “So I’m waiting to see what happens.

“… This sport, sometimes that’s just the way it works out. It’s out of sight, out of mind, so I really need to get back in there and let everyone see me again because I feel like people are starting to forget.”

Lamas hasn’t been completely out of sight, but not having any fights isn’t helping. In just about two years, Lamas has fought twice. He beat former top contender Hatsu Hioki in June 2012, then beat Koch to run his winning streak to four straight since moving to the UFC from the WEC, where he fought as a lightweight.

In the same time since he submitted Cub Swanson at UFC on FOX 1 in November 2011, Lamas has the two big wins – but Swanson has gone 5-0 since that loss with four knockouts and three fight-night bonuses. He’s knocked out George Roop, Ross Pearson, Charles Oliveira and Dennis Siver and outpointed Dustin Poirier in that stretch.

He’s made the kind of noise that has made him a threat to pass Lamas up in the pecking order. And he has the added bonus of a previous fight against Aldo in the WEC that could serve as a big marketing tool. Swanson lost that fight in eight seconds thanks to an Aldo flying knee, and Aldo won the WEC 145-pound belt his next fight out.

“Cub is on a roll and he’s been doing a good job,” Lamas said. “Personally, I still feel like I’m ahead of him. My last two wins were with guys who were going to fight for the title. I’ve beaten two guys who were promised title shots. Cub has beaten some tough guys, too, but I think my two wins trump those.”

So with a bit of apprehension, Lamas continues to hit the gym and stay fresh while waiting and hoping for that phone call that lets him hear Jose Aldo’s name on the other end of it.

And when that happens, Lamas doesn’t care where he has to go to get a shot at UFC gold. If it’s in his Chicago backyard, great. If he has to go to Aldo’s home country, well, that’s just one more challenge for him.

As long as he gets the call.

“I’ve been definitely trying to be more vocal,” he said. “I want to fight Jose Aldo, and he wants to fight me. So we need to make this happen. I’ve been passed over three times already. The first three were three too many, so a fourth would be devastating. If I had my choice, I’d love to do it in Chicago, but I’d do it anywhere in the world. I don’t care if it’s in his backyard.

“Going to Rio would be like Rocky in ‘Rocky IV,’ going to Russia and taking on Ivan Drago. Who doesn’t want to be Rocky?”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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