Paul Felder isn’t done yet, says he still has a lot more left in him

UFC Lightweight Paul Felder is no longer thinking about retirement following his recent disappointing result at UFC Auckland.

Paul Felder took on Dan Hooker in the main event of UFC Auckland. It proved to be a very close contest, with the judges giving Hooker the nod. Felder lost the fight by split-decision and following the loss, he said it may have been his final fight. His coach and manager dismissed Felder’s retirement talk and now it appears that Felder himself agrees with that.

Just over a week since UFC Auckland, Felder appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. When he was asked if this was his last fight he firmly said ‘no.’

Felder said that he still dreams about winning a UFC title to take it back home. Keeping the dream alive, he knows he still has a few more fights left in him.

“That moment almost seemed right, but nah, I think I’ve got a lot more left in me physically,” Felder said. “I’m already recovering from one of the hardest battles of my life, and s**t, it’s addictive, man. That five rounds, that main event, I liked it. I liked being on the poster.

“I’m a pretty dramatic guy. I kind of always think about that moment [of retiring in the cage]. Just as I always think about what having the belt put around my waist would be like and taking that back to Philly,” he continued. “Or fighting at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Or bringing the belt to the Eagles’ stadium, The Linc, and hanging out with the team. I fantasize about all of these things, and retirement is just another one of them. And it’s not in any bad way.”

Even though Felder admits that he still has a lot of fights left in him, he says it needs to make sense for him to commit, as he’s happy working as a commentator. Any future bouts need to be against top-ranked opponents or in a main event spot to motivate him to return.

“If something were to happen to any of these guys in the top five and they can’t match up the way the UFC wants them to match up,” Paul Felder said. “There’s been some talk of Al Iaquinta wanting to fight me, and if you give me a five-rounder with him on a big Fight Night, or a rematch with Hooker, which is never going to happen, but obviously that’s something I would take to get that one back.

“I’m not coming back for the last fight on the prelims, or even the second fight on a pay-per-view. And it’s nothing against them,” he concluded. “It’s not saying that I deserve all of these extra things. It’s just, to go through what I go through and put myself through in training, and then you see how I pushed myself in the fight, you can’t deny that anymore.”

This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 3rd March, 2020.