Paul Felder Welcomes a Fight With Al Iaquinta After UFC 218

Paul Felder spoke following his win over Charles Oliveira at UFC 218 about wanting to face original opponent Al Iaquinta and more. Some of his comments are below:

On Iaquinta pulling out of the fight: “I know his knee has been an issue for a really long time. But I think he was just busy selling houses. And I’m not saying that in a disrespectful way. He said in an interview, he’s like, ‘Look, this is a guy that, if I’m going to fight him, I’m going to go full out, and I want to be fully prepared.’ And I took that as a sign of respect. Maybe with more time. Maybe if we say spring or summer and build it up, maybe me and him could kind of co-headline or headline something, and I think that’s something people can get behind.”

On making a mistake in the UFC 218 bout in trying to excape a D’Arce choke: “For a minute there, I was like, ‘I’m going to get choked out.'”

On the fight stoppage: “Me and (referee Dan Miragliotta) were just talking about it. He saw (the tap) too, but he thought he was saying like, ‘Wow, nice shot.’ Hey, in the heat of the moment – I’m doing my job. You guys saw me pause for a second. And then he’s still there, and the fight’s not over. And you better believe I’m not stopping until somebody pulls me off. I couldn’t believe how many more I got off before the fight was stopped…On camera, it probably looks like it’s about 0.1 of a second but, for me, it feels like 10 seconds of me being like, ‘Is it going to be over?’”