Philadelphia’s Paul Felder was ready to retire after losing a tough, hard-fought split decision to Dan Hooker last February. At 35 years old, it seemed as though the loss had derailed any remaining hope that he would enter the top five of the UFC lightweight division and perhaps earn himself a title shot.

In a surprising twist, Felder, who was supposed to do color commentary for this weekend’s Fight Night, decided to step in on five days notice to fight Rafael dos Anjos, who was scheduled to face Islam Makhachev, but pulled out via injury:

Should be a great fight, and pretty evenly matched.

Dos Anjos 36 years old, a veteran former lightweight champion who actually lost the belt to another Philly native, Eddie Alvarez. He’s lost four of five and is looking to get back on track after moving up to 170 pounds to fight some of the best in the welterweight division.

Felder has won five of seven dating back to 2017, and three of those fights have been bitterly-contested split decisions. You could argue that he lost the Edson Barboza fight in 2019 and won the Hooker fight, but both of those contests were decided by razor-thin margins.

This is really fun, though. Felder always entertains, and instead of losing a good fight he steps in on short notice to save the card and give us what should be a competitive and balanced main event.