Paul Felder believes a UFC lightweight tournament is best for business: “There’s no hand-picking this”

Paul Felder believes it would be best for business if the UFC were to hold a lightweight tournament with no hand-picked fights.

Felder (17-5 MMA) will be returning to the Octagon this evening on short-notice to battle former UFC lightweight title holder Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of UFC Vegas 14.

With a victory over ‘RDA’, ‘The Irish Dragon‘ will be setup nicely for a potential top contenders bout in 2021. With that said, due to the numerous contenders at 155lbs, Felder believes a lightweight tournament would be in the UFC’s best interest.

“I think that tournament idea is really cool, honestly, because it gets all of us busy and active right away and it kind of forces everybody to be like, ‘All right, there’s no hand-picking this,” Felder told reporters earlier this week (via MMAMania). “We set it up, and there’s a bracket, and you fight, and we get there – and then once we get there, and there’s a champion, then that can be gone.”

Paul Felder continued:

“But when you’ve had a champion like Khabib, and then he’s gone, you’ve got all these contenders who are all bouncing around wins and losses with each other and there are some guys that are really trying to squeeze into that mix – (Charles) Oliveira, (Dan) Hooker, myself, Michael Chandler in the mix now. I think it makes sense to make this big eight-man tournament or something like that and have us work our way up toward that belt. I like that idea.”

The UFC is currently working on a lightweight scrap between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. With that said, top contenders such as Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler, Tony Ferguson and Charles Oliveira are all without fights.

Would you like to see the UFC put on a lightweight tournament as per Paul Felder’s suggestion? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!

November 14, 2020