Ex-UFC Title Challenger Ricardo Lamas Finalizes Decision to Retire at 38

Ricardo Lamas was contemplating the end of his career following his victory against Bill Algeo at UFC Fight Night 175, and now that decision is official.

The 38-year-old Chicago native official announced his retirement to MMA Junkie Radio on Monday. Lamas revealed that he finalized his decision as a tribute to his late brother, who died on Aug. 28, 2009 – nearly 11 years to the day of his last bout.

Lamas told MMAFighting.com that he’d been considering calling it a career as far back as 2017 following a first-round TKO of Jason Knight at UFC 214. More recently, “The Bully” suffered a broken jaw in a setback to Calvin Kattar at UFC 238, and that forced Lamas to revisit those thoughts of exiting a sport he’d competed in professionally since 2008.

Barring a change of heart down the road, Lamas was able to end his fighting career on a high note with the win over Algeo.

“[I want to be remembered] that I always left it in the cage,” Lamas told MMAFighting. “Just like in this fight, it was a back-and-forth fight. But just never stopping, and kind of as fights progress on, I just get meaner and the dog comes out of me a little more. That’s probably due to me being the youngest of six boys and just getting beaten up to a point where I just started fighting back.

“I want to be remembered for someone that always gave it their all. I never went in there and bulls----ed, I never went in there and disrespected people. I just went in to perform.”

Lamas’ triumph over Algeo gave him 11 UFC triumphs in 17 promotional appearances, tying him for the third most wins in the history of the division. It’s a run that included a loss to Jose Aldo in a title fight in 2014 along with victories over the likes of Cub Swanson, Hatsu Hioki, Dennis Bermudez, Diego Sanchez, Charles Oliveira and Darren Elkins.