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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Saturday's UFC on Fox 6 event saw a number of fighters making it clear they were amongst the best in their respective divisions. Along with Demetrious Johnson retaining his Flyweight Championship and Anthony Pettis proving again to be one of the most unique and dangerous strikers in the lightweight division, Ricardo Lamas also emerged as a serious threat at featherweight.
Lamas had already impressed UFC fans prior to his fight with Erik Koch in Chicago, but he took it to another level in the second round in front of a hometown crowd. After he slipped and Koch tried to engage him on the ground, he recovered quickly and wound up on top. From there, he proceeded to unleash a brutal series of elbows and strikes as he stacked Koch up, and he forced the finish of a young fighter who had been set for a title fight just last year before injuries took it away.
It was another fantastic win for Lamas, who has emerged as perhaps the top contender on the strength of three fantastic wins over Cub Swanson, Hatsu Hioki, and now Koch. Add in a win over Matt Grice in his UFC debut and he sits at 4-0 inside the Octagon.
After the event, Lamas left no question about what he wants next, as he said he plans on heading to Las Vegas this week for this Saturday's UFC 156 event.
"There's a fight happening next weekend," he said at the post fight press conference (transcribed by MMAWeekly.com). "I'm going to be there watching and I'd love to have the winner of that fight in the main event of Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar."
Penick's Analysis: I was high on the skills of Erik Koch into Saturday night (and I still am), but there's no denying the performance of Lamas. The first round was a bit of a stalemate with each trying to figure the other out, and Koch made a mistake that put him on his back and cost him the fight. But it's Lamas who took advantage of that mistake, then beat the hell out of Koch to earn that stoppage win. Lamas' competition for a No. 1 contender spot is "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung, but while Jung has had some exciting, flashy wins as well, I think Lamas' run of Swanson, Hioki, and Koch trumps Jung's run of Leonard Garcia, Mark Hominick, and Dustin Poirier. He deserves to fight the winner of Saturday's bout, and it will be one very exciting Championship fight regardless of who he faces.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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