UFC 226 featured a must see fight between Paul Felder and the always entertaining Mike Perry. The promising scrap it turned into a bloody war, with Felder holding on despite a broken arm, and Perry capturing the split decision win.
A fight that wasn’t even scheduled two weeks ago turned into one of UFC 226’s most anticipated fights through the promotion during fight week. Paul Felder, coming up from lightweight after his bout with James Vick fell through, stepped up on a week’s notice to fight Platinum Mike Perry. Both fighters have gone in different directions lately, with Perry losing two in a row and Felder winning three straight. But a win could help boost the other regardless of their position in their respective divisions.
At the end of this one, however, there were no losers. A bloody war meant the fans were the biggest winners.
The fight started out a brawl, a technical brawl but a brawl nonetheless. The pair clinched early and both landed elbows that opened the other man up. Felder had great timing to start and landed some really nice straights jabs and knees as Perry was coming in. However Perry stuck it out, and closed the distance, landing shots himself. By the end of round both fighters were cut and bleeding, with well over a hundred strikes thrown. Keep in mind, that was in round one alone.
Mike Perry opened the second round with a bang, and slammed Felder down. Felder managed to get back to his feet and after the two traded for a bit, Perry landed a left hook that was like a gunshot — it immediately opened up Felder bad enough that the doctor was called in almost immediately. Felder was gushing blood, but the doctor wasn’t overly concerned about the cut. Back underway, Perry suplexed Felder which didn’t help matters. Felder recovered and the two ended the round trading elbows.
With every strike the two landed it, the impact was obvious. Felder told his team in between rounds that his arm was broken. Yet despite that he continued using the wounded limb as best he could, even using it in spinning attacks. Felder kept throwing the kitchen sink at Mike Perry, when it came right down to it. Perry, as the fight went on, appeared to find his range and landed some brutal right hands. In the end, the fight was an absolute war that more than lived up to the hype. Come the scorecards being read, Perry took the win with two of three judges.
Regardless of result, we saw that the move to Jackson Wink have obvious impact on Mike Perry’s patience and development. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here.
Mike Perry def. Paul Felder by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
