Not many fighters get to go out with a win. But it appears that longtime UFC featherweight Ricardo Lamas is doing just that. After a career that included 28 professional fights, the 38-year-old former title challenger announced Monday that he’s officially hanging it up, a little over a week after he beat Bill Algeo in the Fight of the Night at the UFC Apex.

It was an appropriate way to go out. Lamas was one of the most reliably entertaining fighters the UFC had, and it was fitting that his final fight was such a battle. Although he hadn’t been a top contender for a few years, Lamas still had a lot left to offer in the cage, and he’ll leave us with a pretty sweet highlight reel:

Fans didn’t buy tickets to see Ricardo Lamas fight. He was never a big name. Even when he challenged for the featherweight title against the great Jose Aldo in 2014, the fight was second on the billing behind the Renan Barao–Urijah Faber rematch. But you could almost always count on Lamas bringing the action – he was a fighter’s fighter, a guy with a well-rounded game who always hunted the finish.

Lamas was a Division III wrestling All-American who thrived on top, showcasing some truly violent ground-and-pound – to me, the highest point of his career was when he smashed Erik Koch‘s face into hamburger with elbows from guard, back when Koch had some real hype around him. He also had a neat submission game highlighted by a tight guillotine choke that he notably used to tap out third-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Charles Oliveira in 2016. He wasn’t one of those wrestlers who scored a takedown and laid on top of you. He was always looking for something to put you away.

But he could also hang on the feet. He didn’t have the most powerful hands, but he could whack you good with a kick or a knee – one of my all-time favorite Lamas highlights is him turning Bendy Casimir‘s skeleton into jelly with a jumping knee in 2010.

Lamas peaked during his early UFC run, highlighted by a four-fight win streak that included a sweet arm-triangle finish of another underappreciated and relentlessly entertaining fighter, Cub Swanson, and a brilliant grappling clinic against Hatsu Hioki, who had dominated Shooto and Sengoku in Japan and at the time was considered one of the top featherweights in the world. When he smashed Koch in Jan. 2013, he earned his chance at Aldo, who was heading towards the tail end of his epic six-year reign over the featherweight division. Lamas was a bit outmatched in a fight that took place mainly on the feet – Aldo absolutely destroyed Lamas’ thighs with his fabled leg kicks – but Lamas looked largely competitive in the fight and gave a strong accounting of himself.

Lamas never returned to those heights again, but he was a credible threat at 145 for the rest of his career. His striking never really reached an elite level, and later in his career, better stand-up fighters like Josh Emmett and Calvin Kattar were able to exploit that deficiency. But while one could reasonably have seen Lamas continuing to be a tough out for at least a couple years yet, he was probably never again going to be a real contender, and it makes his decision to walk away now that much better.

But still, it sucks a little bit to see him leave. Lamas was one of the last WEC O.G.s left in the UFC, having cut his teeth in the now long-defunct promotion that helped bring lighter weight classes into the MMA mainstream. At its peak, WEC was absolute appointment viewing if you were an MMA fan, and Lamas was one of its last stars who was still relevant – Aldo, Anthony Pettis, Donald Cerrone, Raphael Assuncao and a few others are still hanging around, but they’re a dying breed.

He was a fighter who you could always count on to bring his best every night, and he got pretty dang far. In the end, Ricardo Lamas may have come up short in his one shot at gold. But I thought this one random Reddit user said it best: “I’m sure there aren’t many kids that dream of having the career Lamas did, but I bet there are plenty of former pros that dream of having the career Lamas did.”

Damn straight.