Ricardo Lamas picked up a unanimous decision victory over Bill Algeo on Saturday night and after hinting post-fight that he was contemplating retirement post-fight it seems that a few days later he’s now becoming even more committed to that plan.
“The more I think about that last fight and everything that happened…the more I couldn’t make a more perfect time to leave the sport and kind of leave my legacy where it’s at,” Lamas told Jimmy Smith on Sirius XM.
The victory over Algeo appears to have exorcised the demons of the KO loss to Calvin Kattar that had proceeded it, while the fact that Saturday night’s back-and-forth battle ended up securing ‘Fight Of The Night’ honors may have been the icing on the cake that’s left Lamas at peace with thoughts of now hanging up his gloves for good.
“For me, there were a couple things going into this sport that I wanted to do before I left it. I’ve accomplished a ton of that. I’m the type of guy where if I were to leave on a bad note, it would just stick with me for the longest time ever – and it’s just something that I couldn’t live with. I always told myself I want to go out on a high note.
“You always hear about these athletes that don’t know when to hang the gloves up, and they experience this downward slide, and it’s just like, ‘Man, this isn’t the same guy he was before.’ I don’t want to leave the sport like that. I don’t want to leave with my face in the mud. I want to leave holding my head up high.”
if that was his final trip to the Octagon then Lamas retires with an overall 20-8 record, including an 11-6 run in the UFC that saw him pick up wins over the likes of Cub Swanson, Diego Sanchez, Charles Oliveira and Dennis Bermudez, along with having fought Jose Aldo for the featherweight title, losing by unanimous decision.
