Felder explains why he took short-notice fight: 'What do I have to lose?'

When Paul Felder got the call to face former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos at UFC Fight Night on five days' notice, he was in the middle of a treadmill session.

Felder said Monday that agreeing to a five-round main event at 155 pounds the week of the fight normally wouldn't be "in the cards." But given his body's current condition - he's been training for a March 2021 triathlon - and after talking it over with his wife and manager, he went for it.

"I decided that with everything going on in the world and all the sad things going on in people's lives, losing their jobs and suffering - we just lost Alex freakin' Trebek to pancreatic cancer - I was like, 'Man, you're still 36, you're young, you're in shape, f------ save the day. Let's go get paid, let's have fun. You're fighting a legend,'" Felder told ESPN's Ariel Helwani. "What do I have to lose?"

Felder, the No. 7-ranked lightweight, will welcome Dos Anjos back to the division. Dos Anjos competed at welterweight for the past four years, but the Brazilian made a name for himself at 155 pounds, where he held the UFC belt from 2015-16.

He said he asked the UFC about doing a catchweight bout, but the promotion wanted to find someone willing to take the fight at 155 pounds. Felder added he weighed "well under" 180 pounds as of Monday night, and he's confident he'll make the lightweight limit Friday.

"I think (Dos Anjos) really wants to be fighting the top guys at 155 to make his comeback and give himself a chance, and that was kind of one of the stipulations," Felder said.

There have been multiple short-notice main events contested at three rounds in recent months, but Felder had no issue committing to the typical 25 minutes.

"If you're gonna do a main event, I want to do it right. ... I'm excited to do another five rounds, especially with somebody like RDA," Felder said.

He sees the short-notice fight against Dos Anjos as a "win-win" scenario.

"If I go in there and I can finish and beat RDA, a former champ, then it gives me a lot of selling points to be getting these bigger fights, which seem to have been eluding me in the top five of the lightweight division here in the UFC," Felder said. "How do you not give me something big after this if I go in there after stepping up? And if it doesn't go my way, I saved the day."