Paul Felder reacts to being “slapped in the face” with back-to-back cancelled bouts

The year 2018 has not been particularly kind to UFC lightweight contender Paul Felder.

After a strong 2017 campaign, Felder looked to kickstart the new year with an April showdown with ranked lightweight contender Al Iaquinta. The bout was supposed to occur at UFC 223. Unfortunately for Felder, Iaquinta got the call to step in against Khabib Nurmagomedov in the card’s last-minute minute main event. And just like that, he was without a fight. His first bout of 2018 had been deferred indefinitely.

Luckily, the UFC was able to book Felder for another fight quite promptly, scheduling him for a UFC Boise scrap with the streaking James Vick. Unfortunately, Felder once again had his opponent taken away unexpectedly, as Vick was called upon to replace none other than Felder’s planned UFC 223 opponent Al Iaquinta in a UFC Lincoln showdown with Justin Gaethje.

In other words, that’s twice in the span of a few months that Felder has been scheduled for a high-stakes lightweight contender bout, only to have his opponent whisked away to compete in another fight.

As you can imagine, he’s pretty frustrated.

The all-action UFC lightweight shared his thoughts on his bad luck on Twitter.

Slapped in the face for the second time this year. Nothing kills ur motivation like training and cutting weight for nothing. Wtf #bullshit

— Paul Felder (@felderpaul) June 28, 2018

“Slapped in the face for the second time this year,” Felder said in his Twitter post. “Nothing kills ur motivation like training and cutting weight for nothing. Wtf #bullshit.”

Hopefully, the UFC is able to either find a compelling replacement opponent for Paul Felder at UFC Boise, or reschedule him for another fight in the very near future. He’s long overdue for his first fight of the year.

Who do you want to see Paul Felder fight now that he’s had two opponents swiped away from him?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/28/2018.