Paul Felder Discusses His Victory at UFC Fight Night 88

– Paul Felder was recently interviewed by mmajunkie.com, and spoke about his UFC Fight Night 88 victory over Josh Burkman. Here are the highlights…

On The Win Over Burkman: “I feel like I could have done better,” Felder said. “But I’ve got to admit he confused me with his movement a little bit. I couldn’t find him in the first round. And, honestly, I’m just nervous with decisions. At this point I’ve had two really close ones that didn’t go my way – justly so. For the first time in a fight, I thought I had the gameplan and the strategy going in. So I was like, ‘If I’m at the losing end of a decision, I’m going to be very depressed tonight.’ That’s all I was thinking at the end. So I really wasn’t mad at myself as much as, ‘Please, don’t lose this decision.’ But as soon as I heard the (result), I was like ‘OK, I got this.’”

On Dropping to 155: “I knew he was never going to be afraid to throw down,” Felder said. “And I knew he’d be able to take a shot. I think we both proved that we can sit there and crack each other right on the chin and just hit right back. “Where I felt a little bit better about what I anticipated maybe was strength-wise, since he was a welterweight coming down to 155. That’s what I was most nervous about – his size and maybe his strength. I don’t really think that was an issue. I got right back up most of the time and nullified most of any ground attack at all.”

On Feeling Comfortable in the Cage: “I do feel more and more comfortable,” Felder said. “That was my sixth fight with the UFC, so it’s becoming my job. It’s starting to feel like, ‘I get the butterflies, I get the nervous energy,’ but I look at my corner ‘OK, we’re going to go over what’s going to happen.’ It’s really starting to feel like I belong in there.”