Paul Felder has never been short on heart. Still, he’s making a real gutsy move stepping in on five day’s notice this weekend against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 14.
The fight is at lightweight. dos Anjos wasn’t interested in a catchweight. Which gives Felder very little time to hit 155lbs.
“If I don’t look great, it’s because I’m cutting weight,” Felder said during the UFC Vegas 14 media day on Thursday. The only thing that had made this short notice fight even possible is that Felder happened to be training for a triathlon. Otherwise, the fight would be “Not even remotely a possibility. I would have been in the 190s, maybe 200lbs. Depends how many beers I was drinking.”
Felder isn’t joking. Over two years ago, at UFC Atlantic City in April of 2018, Felder hit the scales after the official weigh-in. Although clothed, he tipped the scales at well over 190lbs. Of course, Felder wasn’t fighting that weekend. But it reinforces the idea that “The Irish Dragon” really did have the luck of the Irish when it comes to this fight.
“It’s kind of like a weird coincidence, that I did this thing [triathlon], I kind of put MMA out of my mind, and because of that, it kind of forced itself back in my life,” Felder went on to add. After all, he’d been sort of quasi-retired following his last fight, a loss to Dan Hooker back in February. MMA coming back to him “is kind of awesome, because I didn’t want MMA out of my life,” he continued, “but I started getting a little bitter toward the division and the way everything was going. And I didn’t see that road anymore.”
Without a path to the top, Felder questioned his reason for competing. “Why am I doing it? Why am I getting hit in the head, why am I coming home to my family beat up?” Money isn’t enough of a reason. “I’m not fighting just to make money, I’m fighting for opportunities that will set me up for the future, and for bigger things. And then this presents itself.”
The fight against RDA, Felder believes, gives him that path back to the top. And if it doesn’t work out, maybe it tells him something. “I’m stepping in on five day’s notice to fight an absolute legend in RDA. If I lose, and he takes my ranking, then okay, I know that maybe I’m not meant to be fighting for the title anyway.”
“And with a win, how can you argue to not give me a fight that I really want with one of these top guys, and one of these exciting match-ups at 155lbs?” he questioned. “So for me, it just made sense.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 14 media day scrum with Paul Felder above. The event takes place this Saturday, November 14 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV.
