WEC 42 Preview: Danny Castillo vs. Ricardo Lamas

Danny Castillo (7-1, 2-1 WEC) vs. Ricardo Lamas (6-0, 1-0 WEC)

The Story So Far: Two up-and-coming lightweights meet to see who will emerge as a top contender for the WEC 155lb title.

In one of the more intriguing match-ups at WEC 42, undefeated Ricardo Lamas looks to continue his winning ways against two-time NAIA All-American wrestler and Urijah Faber training partner, Danny Castillo. 

Lamas most recently defeated Bart Palaszewski via unanimous decision back at WEC 39 in his debut fight for the promotion.  In that bout, Lamas combined his stellar wrestling ability with an effective clinch game and brutal ground and pound to totally dominate the former IFL standout.  Against Palaszweski, Lamas also demonstrated a very adept striking game, mixing up his strikes and coming in from multiple angles.  At one point in the second round, Lamas had Palaszewskis' back standing and proceeded to land a wicked reverse left head kick that had the crowd ooh-ing and aah-ing. 

Point is, Lamas is for real.

Danny Castillo trains with Urijah Faber as part of Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, CA and is looking to get back in title contention with a solid performance and win against Lamas this Sunday.

Since a first-round submission loss to current Lightweight #1 contender Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone at WEC 34, Castillo is coming into this fight with two straight wins under his belt.  Castillo stopped Rafael Dias via strikes in Round 2 of their WEC 36 match-up and followed that up with a split-decision victory against Phil Cardella in March at WEC 39.

 Conventional Wisdom

The general feeling in regard to this match-up is that the edge goes to Lamas who was dominant in just about every aspect of his fight against the tough-as-nails Palaszewski.  

When comparing both fighters' performances in their biggest career tests to date - Castillo was submitted by "Cowboy" in just 1:30 of the first round, while Lamas holds the aforementioned victory over Palaszewski.

WKR Analysis

Both men are very accomplished wrestlers and when two good wrestlers face each other, we usually see a stand-up battle.  To that end, Lamas has shown a bit more striking prowess than Castillo in his recent fights.  However, Castillo does have enough power in his hands to land a game-changing shot at any time.

Castillo also has a few submission victories to his credit so there is an outside possibility of him subbing Lamas - but if Palaszewski couldn't catch Lamas, I doubt Castillo will.    

Fun Fact

Danny Castillo was a senior account executive with an internet-based company in San Francisco before he began his fighting career.