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#7-ranked UFC lightweight contender Paul Felder is on a 2-fight win streak. He is just coming off an incredibly well-earned split-decision victory over Edson Barboza at UFC 242 in the co-main event.
It's clear that his stock is rising and Felder wants to strike while the iron's hot. With a few top Lightweight contenders coming off losses and inactivity and others being in contendership, Felder has a few options ahead of him as he looks to climb the ranks of the division.
In an interview on Eurobash Podcast on MMAFighting, Felder spoke about what lies ahead for him.
Who is Felder interested in?
The first name that Felder revealed that he wants to fight is none other than the man who's next in line for a title shot after Tony Ferguson - Justin Gaethje. There's never a boring fight when it comes to Gaethje and Felder is willing to mix it in the Octagon with him, He said:
“Obviously, I want to fight Justin Gaethje some day, and I feel like he’s really deserving of a big fight moving forward. I’m not fighting (Donald) ‘Cowboy’ (Cerrone), so it’s very limited in terms of who is ahead of me, so we’ll see what happens from here."
Conor McGregor is a name being thrown around because of his inactivity. When asked about potentially facing the Irishman, Felder said that he would take it for the money, but he wouldn't beg for it, saying:
“Fight [Conor McGregor]? I wouldn’t mind it. I like making money – plus he’s up there. He’s got numbers next to his name that I want to take. If you want to talk about that fight, you know it’s going to be a striking battle with me, and Conor is obviously not going to be trying to take me down either.
"But I’m also not one of those people that’s going to play his game and beg for something like that if I know that I’m not the guy that’s going to get it. I’m not going to go crazy trying to get it, but I would absolutely love to throw down with him.”
Felder said that apart from Gaethje, Dustin Poirier would be his best option since he just came off a title fight, albeit an unsuccessful one.
What lies ahead for Felder?
The lightweight division in UFC is nothing short of a shark tank and it's going to be interesting to see who Felder faces. He won't be a favorite heading into any of his next couple of fights.
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