Paul Felder Defends His Post-Show Offer To Fight Justin Gaethje
Justin Gaethje scored another impressive knockout over the weekend at UFC Philadelphia in the highly anticipated main event bout against fellow striker Edson Barboza, and just minutes later found himself fielding a face-to-face offer from a potential next opponent.
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Fellow lightweight contender Paul Felder, who had said after his last fight that he wanted the winner of the UFC Philadelphia main event, was working as an analyst after the event over the weekend. “The Irish Dragon” told Gaethje after the fight that if he couldn’t get a fight against a top-five ranked opponent that he’d gladly step in to fight him.
The offer didn’t go down too well with Gaethje who accused Felder and the host of the show Karyn Bryant on trying to steal his thunder.
Felder spoke about the incident in an interview with MMAJunkie.com and said he got the green-light from his ESPN producer to ask Gaethje directly before claiming the offer was out of respect given he had asked for the fight beforehand.
literally said I wanted the winner of #UFCPhildelphia after my last fight. Then I have the winner standing NEXT TO ME.course I’m gonna ask
— Paul Felder (@felderpaul) March 31, 2019
“I feel like what I did was more respectful, because I mentioned his name,” Felder said. “His name has come out of my mouth when he’s not around, so when he’s there, it would be unprofessional and cowardly of me to not say the same thing to his face that I had already said on camera with the UFC. I get where Justin is coming from. It’s just everybody else that needs to shut the (expletive) up. Justin is a fighter. He just knocked out an opponent – I might be like, ‘Hey, let me have my moment.’ That’s fine for him.”
Felder is currently ranked ninth in the official UFC lightweight rankings with Gaethje now aiming for a top-five opponent after knocking out the No. 6 Barboza.
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