Ricardo Lamas not getting his hopes up for potential title fight against Jose Aldo at UFC 169

Hopefully optimistic would be the best way to describe Ricardo Lamas' attitude after UFC president Dana White revealed that the promotion is considering matching him up against featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 169 in February.

White made mention of the potential fight during the lead up to Saturday's UFC 166 fight card, telling the media:

We're talking about that Super Bowl weekend. It's not done yet. We're talking about it; we talk about a lot of things.

Lamas last fought at UFC on Fox 6 in Chicago in January of this year. In that fight, Lamas TKO'd Erik Koch in the second round. The victory was Lamas' fourth consecutive win since dropping to featherweight in June 2011.

After that win, Lamas said he was heading to Vegas to check out the bout between Aldo and Frankie Edgar that headlined UFC 156 in February. Lamas' intent was to call out the winner of that fight. Unfortunately for him, a text from Anthony Pettis reached the phone of White after Aldo earned the unanimous decision win over Edgar. That text declared that Pettis wanted a crack at Aldo, a request the UFC was happy to grant.

The promotion booked Aldo versus Pettis for UFC 163. Lamas also found himself booked on that Brazil fight card, facing Chan Sung Jung. A training camp injury forced Pettis from the Aldo bout, seemingly opening the door for Lamas to step into the main event. Instead, the UFC shifted Jung to the Aldo bout, leaving Lamas without an opponent.

Aldo stopped Jung in the fourth round of that fight, earning a TKO win.

With all that history, it's easy to understand why Lamas isn't booking a flight to New Jersey for UFC 169 just yet. Speaking to Fox Sports, Lamas said:

I've gotten my hopes up before and been let down, so I'm just training, and I still treat it as if I don't have anything booked yet. To be honest, there isn't going to be any relief until I sign my name on that dotted line. As soon as I'm done signing my name though, I'll probably throw up or something.

The 31-year old Lama also said that should the fight against Aldo not transpire:

It wouldn't drag me down - it wouldn't end my life, it wouldn't end my career - I'm still going to get to where I want to be no matter what. That's just the type of person that I am.

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