Ricardo Lamas Injured, Out of UFC 143 Fight Against Dustin Poirier

Dustin Poirier

Featherweight awaits new opponent

Dustin Poirier can’t seem to buy a break.

The rising featherweight contender was expected to face fellow surging 145-pounder Erik Koch at UFC 143. But Koch pulled out of the fight with an injury last month and was replaced by Ricardo Lamas. But now Lamas has suffered an injury and is out of the fight with Poirier – leaving “The Diamond” again without an opponent.

The UFC announced Lamas’ injury Tuesday night and said a new opponent is expected to be announced for Poirier soon.

Poirier (11-1, 3-0 UFC) comes into the bout on a four-fight winning streak, including three straight since making his featherweight debut in the UFC at the start of the year. At UFC 125, he upset Josh Grispi with a dominant unanimous decision, ending Grispi’s hopes for a shot at Jose Aldo‘s featherweight title. At UFC 131 in June, he beat Jason Young by unanimous decision. And at the first UFC on Fox event last month, he submitted Pablo Garza with a D’Arce choke in the second round – though Lamas beat him out for the Submission of the Night bonus on the same card. Poirier is a student of UFC fighter Tim Credeur in Louisiana.

Lamas (11-2, 2-0 UFC) has found great success since dropping down to featherweight for his UFC debut earlier this year. In June, the suburban Chicago-based fighter knocked out Matt Grice in his first fight since the WEC-UFC merger with a head kick and follow-up strikes in the first round. And on the first UFC on Fox card in November, Lamas won Submission of the Night honors for his second-round arm triangle comeback win over Cub Swanson.

UFC 143 takes place Feb. 4 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and features a main event interim welterweight title fight between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz with champ Georges St-Pierre on the shelf for much of 2012 following surgery on his ACL.