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Paul Felder will leave the commentary booth to help Jared Gordon his bout on the July 16th UFC Fight Island event.
It looks like the COVID-19 cases that ripped through Gilbert Burn’s recent title fight opportunity at UFC 251 didn’t just leave him out of luck. Fellow Sanford MMA fighter Jared Gordon was lucky enough to avoid catching the coronavirus, despite training out of the Orlando camp that also hosts the Burns brothers, but the pandemic left his corner team unable to make the journey to Abu Dhabi to support him in his upcoming bout against Chris Fishgold this Wednesday, July 15th.
Fortunately for Gordon it looks like he’ll still be getting some expert advice, but from a couple unexpected places. Gordon’s Sucker Punch Entertainment management team reported via Instagram that Paul Felder would be stepping away from his commentary position for the fight, to work Gordon’s corner. He will be joined by Xtreme Couture’s Erick Nicksick, who appears to be in Abu Dhabi as part of Ige’s team.
“No way I’m letting my man go into a fight alone,” Felder wrote in a re-post of Sucker Punch’s announcement.
Felder and Gordon trained together during Gordon’s time with Roufusport as recently as September of 2019. Coincidentally Gordon even traveled to Abu Dhabi for Felder’s fight with Edson Barboza, as well as Phoenix for Felder’s bout against James Vick. So, for Gordon’s sake he’ll at least be getting corner work from at least one person very familiar with his training and fighting style.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Dan Ige as also stepping up to corner Gordon for this bout. Ige’s coach Erick Nicksack is, in fact, the second man cornering Gordon.