Given the history between UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, there may not be many Irish fighters willing to support the Russian. But Paul ‘The Irish Dragon’ Felder will be an exception on Saturday night.
At UFC 242, the Philadelphia fighter will take on Brazilian UFC veteran Edson Barboza in the co-main event bout of the night in Abu Dhabi, the chief support to Khabib’s lightweight unification fight against interim champion Dustin Poirier, and is hungry to reverse a 2015 unanimous decision loss to ‘Junior’.
The fiery-haired Felder only fell into MMA after taking an amateur fight upon graduating from The University of the Arts in his native Philadelphia. He is now number 10 in the official UFC lightweight rankings, having had 12 fights in the division since joining in 2014.
Although Felder is not Irish-born, he acquired his fight name by virtue of studying martial arts and growing up a small Irish-Catholic neighbourhood in South Philadelphia – which led to the moniker ‘the Irish Dragon.’
On Saturday, Felder will take into the Octagon a hunger to avenge his defeat against Barboza, one of only four in his 20 professional MMA contest thus far, but he insists there is no “bad blood” between the two, although there will be no love lost either.
“There’s no bad blood between me and Barboza,” Felder told the UFC’s official website. “We’re gonna try to knock the living s**t out of each other, I can tell you that, but it’s purely for who’s gonna move up the ladder and who’s gonna get closer to that title shot.
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“That’s it. And I feel like it’s my time to get that one back. At this point, he’s the number seven guy, so with a win over him I put myself in the position of being to call out the guys above that number seven spot. And that’s all I want.”
Aged 34, victory over Barboza would be a certain way to prolong Felder’s career, and the Philly native may be catching a 33-year-old Barboza at the right time. Despite having shared the ring with some of the biggest names in the sport, Barboza has lost three of his last four fights, including one to Khabib.
“They all want me to retire at this point. But I’m still young. I’m only 35 and I’ve still got quite a few more years of fighting if I needed to fight or wanted to fight. I still love it and it’s what I do. I’m a martial artist,” Felder said.
“There’s some things left for me to conquer in this sport and there are some dudes I can beat that are at the top right now, this guy being one of them.”
