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Philly Guy Paul Felder Suffered a Collapsed Lung, Still Won his UFC Fight

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Feb 18th, 2019 · 12:44 PM EST

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Grays Ferry native Paul Felder improved to 16-4 last night with a unanimous decision win against James Vick in his 12th UFC appearance.

He went the distance in that bout, finishing the fight with… what sounds like a pretty bad injury according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani:

Paul Felder suffered a collapsed lung in the closing minutes of his fight against James Vick last night, his manager Brian Butler told ESPN. Doctors believe the lung was punctured when he took a shot to the ribs at the end of the third round. …

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 18, 2019

Butler told Helwani that Felder was being held an extra day in a Phoenix hospital and that the injury will keep him out of his color commentary duties for UFC Prague, which takes place this weekend. There are, however, no long term issues resulting from the injury.

He himself didn’t seem to be too fazed:

I got two lungs… I just want a beer for shitsake

— Paul Felder (@felderpaul) February 18, 2019

Not sure about you, but if I suffered a collapsed lung in a UFC fight I’d probably ball myself into the fetal position and immediately tap out.

Felder would have been a perfect choice to fight in Philadelphia on March 30th, had he not already been booked when the UFC Philly announcement was made. Instead, he sounds very interested in fighting the winner of the Wells Fargo Center main event between Edson Barboza and Justin Gaethje:

https://twitter.com/GIFSkull/status/1097355249587765248

Felder lost to Barboza in three-round war back in 2015. Gaethje is 19-2 with his only losses coming to Dustin Poirier and Kensington’s Eddie Alvarez. Felder had previously expressed his annoyance at not being able to fight in his hometown, but he should at least get a nice reception from the hometown crowd, since he’s now the highest profile local UFC fighter following Alvarez’s departure from the promotion.

The UFC Fight Night at the Wells Fargo Center currently looks like this:

• Main event: Edson Barboza vs. Justin Gaethje
• Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Michelle Waterson
• Alexa Grasso vs. Marina Rodriguez
• Ross Pearson vs. Desmond Green
• Sheymon Moraes vs. Sodiq Yusuff
• Paul Craig vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
• Maryna Moroz vs. Sabina Mazo
• David Branch vs. Jack Hermansson

Pretty good card. The main event and Karolina/Waterson fight are worth the price of admission.

But good job by Felder repping Philly this weekend. He’s won four of his last five and Vick was ranked 10th in the Lightweight division heading into last night’s bout.