Morning report: Paul Felder explains his decision to intervene on short notice against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 14

On Sunday, the main event of UFC Vegas 14 suffered a catastrophic blow when Islam Makhachev was forced out of his scheduled fight with Rafael dos Anjos. But after struggling to find a replacement fighter on five days’ notice, the UFC pulled it off with flying colors, replacing 12th-seeded Makhachev with seventh lightweight contender Paul Felder.

Felder was slated to be the color commentator for this weekend’s event, and speaking with ESPN, “The Irish Dragon” explained what prompted him to leave the commentary booth and enter the cage on a few minutes’ notice. days.

“I thought about it and decided with everything going on in the world and all the sad things going on in people’s lives and losing their jobs and their suffering and we just lost Alex, scary Trebek because of pancreatic cancer, I was like, ‘Dude, you know you’re still 36. You are young. You’re in shape. Save this date. Let’s get paid. Let’s have fun. You are fighting a legend, ”Felder said. “What do I have to lose?”

Well, for one thing, the weight. Felder is a big, lightweight and despite the short-notice nature of the bout, agreed to meet the 155-pound weight limit on Friday. It’s not a lot of time for what is normally a difficult process, but Felder says the only reason he was even able to accept this fight is because he’s currently close to fighting form, a by-product of triathlon training.

“I’m a lot leaner and lighter than I ever should have beaten on short notice,” Felder said. “Normally that wouldn’t even be in the cards to think about because I would have 195, 198. I’m far from that. I am well under 80 years old. I’m in the 70’s. So I’ll give this to you. I’m in the 70s. With a little time, a load of water and dehydration, everything will be fine. “

The question remains though, why not just have the fight at varying weight? Although dos Anjos won his UFC title in the lightweight division, he has struggled at 170 pounds in the past three years. Given the short-notice nature of the fight, it would seemingly make sense to have it challenged at 170 instead. However, Felder says fighting at lightweight was a condition of accepting the fight.

“I think he really wants to fight the best guys at 155 to make his comeback and give himself a chance,” Felder said. “It was one of the stipulations. Obviously we’ve been talking about catching weights, but I know that with the main events, if possible, they like to keep it in the weight class. It was one of the things, “Do you think you can do it? It won’t be fun, but I’ll make it happen.

There is probably some truth in Felder’s guess. RDA falls back into the lightweight division after losing four of its last five welterweights, and hopes to make a splash immediately. Now, he will have an even better chance as he takes on a Top 10 opponent right out of the gate, in a five-round fight that he trained for, when his opponent didn’t. But dos Anjos is not the only one with opportunities ahead of him. Felder says he views this as a lossless situation for himself.

“I like five-round fights,” Felder said. “If you’re going to do a main event, I want to do it right. This is what it was planned to do. So yes, five rounds. I can’t wait to do five more laps, especially with someone like RDA. This is an experience. We will see. My brain is cool, my body is cool. I don’t take sparring hits like I normally do, but I’m still technically sharp and staying very fit, so we’ll see.

“I know I’m nearing the end of my career. This, I think, is a win-win for me because if I go there and I can finish and beat RDA, a former champion, then that gives me a lot of selling points to get those bigger fights that seem to have escaped. me in the top five in the lightweight division here at the UFC. How not to give myself something great after that if I go after stepping up? And, if that doesn’t go my way, then I saved the day. I’m going there to try to win, so we’ll see.

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Of. Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson dropped out of UFC 256.

Irish dragon. Paul Felder steps in to take on Rafael dos Anjos in the new UFC Vegas 14 main event.

Truth. Glover Teixeira says “without a doubt” that he has done enough to fight for the title ahead of Israel Adesanya.

Temptation. Daniel Cormier considered coming back against Jan Blachowicz for “15 minutes”, but then decided “I was completely done”.

Shadow. Jack Hermansson: ‘At least five guys’ in the standings refused to fight after Darren Till fell due to injury.

145. PFL champion Kayla Harrison will make her featherweight debut at Invicta FC 43.

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The best finishes from Patricio Pitbull.

The fighters tell some of their best fighting stories.

Free combat.

Conor hacks the P4P ranking.

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The Co-Main Event. Discuss the curious state of the UFC light heavyweight division.

Anik and Florian. About UFC Vegas 13 and UFC Vegas 14.

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Disappointment.

The respect.

Swing and miss.

Premonition.

Take loss like a champ.

It looks healthy.

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Shaheen Santana (6-0) c. Natan Levy (5-0); DWTNCS, Nov ten.

Paul Felder (17-5) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (29-13); UFC Fight Night, November 14.

Brendan Allen (15-3) against Sean Strickland (21-3); UFC Fight Night, November 14.

Kayla Harrison (7-0) vs. Courtney king (4-1); Invicta FC 43, November 20.

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Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.

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