While canceling an entire event is never an easy decision to make, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) felt it was the best thing to do after the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion pulled the plug on UFC Fight Night 97 -- which was set to go down on Saturday (Oct. 15, 2016) in Manila, Philippines -- in the wake of B.J. Penn's injury.
For Ricardo Lamas -- who was set to face "The Prodigy" in the main event of the FOX Sports 1 event -- it's discouraging in more ways than one, as headlining an event against a living legend is an opportunity that doesn't come around often. Add that to the fact that he -- along with the rest of the fighters set to compete on the card -- perhaps won't be maxing out their earning potential, then it pretty much leads to an all-around bad situation, especially with the holidays looming.
"The Bully" appeared on "The MMA Hour" to talk about the cancelation of the event, and whether or not the promotion would be paying the fighters any compensation.
"It sucked. I literally went through an entire camp, I was done training. The only thing that was left was to cut the weight. I was already holding my weight pretty low, and to hear that, it stinks, especially with the holidays coming up. This is what I do to make a living. I want to give my family a nice Christmas this year, and to have that canceled when you put in so much work, it's discouraging. But, I try to push it out of my head and I know UFC will make it right and everything will work out. They said they were going to compensate me, but I don't know the number yet. They are also trying to reschedule me. Sean says he has some calls out and hopefully sometime this week I will find out whether I'm fighting or not. If it were up to me, I'd be happy with my show and win money, but I'll be happy with my show money. Really, I came to fight. I put all of this work and I don't want an entire training camp to go to waste. So, I am hoping they find an opponent for me and get me on a card very soon."
UFC did send out a release that stated, "Athletes scheduled to compete on the Oct. 15 card will be rebooked at upcoming UFC events in the near future. Each athlete set to compete on Oct. 15 will also receive compensation due to the card being rescheduled." It is a rather vague statement, one that apparently was not fully explained to the fighters who were supposed to compete at the event.
Time will tell.
Nevertheless, Lamas revealed that Bryan Caraway offered to fill in for the injured Penn to face him in Manila. But, when he was asked to fight Lamas at a later date once the event was canceled, "Kid Lightning" then declined, wanting more cash to go up in weight, according to Lamas.
Moving forward, Lamas says UFC matchmakers are hoping to get him on the UFC Fight Night 98 event in Mexico City on Nov. 5, 2016, but have yet to find a suitable foe for him. Anyone care to throw out some suggestions?
