Felder supplies the material for this installment of The Film Room.
Felder began training in taekwondo and karate at the age of 12, but he did not start his professional MMA career until he was 26. Despite his background, “The Irish Dragon” takes on more of a muay Thai style with a high guard, tight stance and a focus on landing knees and elbows. His best work comes on the counter, where he takes on a pressure-countering approach. Instead of the classic make-you-miss-make-you-pay style of countering, Felder likes to pressure forward with footwork, feints and simple combos to bait the opponent to come in, at which point he can slip and counter. Being a proficient pressure counter fighter is rare in any sport because it requires a lot of preparation. When pressure countering, you want to fluster opponents into coming forward by throwing simple combos over and over again, hoping they catch on and trying to counter. This is difficult because you must know what the opponents’ go-to attack is to whatever simple combo you are throwing so you can respond to their counter. Many of the best fighters in the world have employed this countering tactic, none better than Roberto Duran.
Felder throws a ton of knees, and one of his go-to counters is a quick lead switch knee to the body. This is reminiscent of Donald Cerrone, a man with whom he trained for many years and a fighter he still touts as one of his heroes. In the first fight with Barboza, this knee was nowhere to be seen. However, it is the perfect strike to use against someone like Barboza, who will occasionally swing wildly in the pocket. If Barboza comes forward, simply raising the knee and having him run into it will stop him in his tracks.
Felder also likes to use these knees to the body on the lead and in the clinch. Unlike most fighters, he often uses the knee to the body to initiate the clinch, instead of the other way around. Barboza has always struggled with pressure and grappling, so expect to see Felder try to clinch against the cage more in the rematch. Clinching against the cage takes away Barboza’s best weapons -- his kicks -- and tires him out for later in the fight. Felder also has some nice elbows in the clinch, but he mostly throws knees.
Felder’s leading attacks are usually simple one-twos, right hooks and the occasional kick. They are almost always thrown as single strikes with no setups, but he is doing a lot of this on purpose to set up his counters. We know by hearing Felder’s work in the commentary booth that he is an intelligent fighter and big on pre-fight analysis, which is the only way you will have success pressure countering. Based on his counters, you can tell he did his homework and learned his opponent’s reactions to certain combos. Against Joshua Burkman, he knew “The People’s Warrior” liked to counter the jab with a big overhand left or right, so Felder would feint the jab, wait for the overhand and counter with his own right hand over the top.
The problem? Felder used this strategy in the first fight with Barboza, and it did not work. He was picked apart on the outside by the Brazilian’s kicks and struggled to land anything during the brief exchanges in the pocket. In the rematch, he figures to benefit from using the same strategy that has worked on Barboza for years: pressure him to the cage, force him to fight backward and initiate exchanges in the pocket. Barboza has never been able to get off the fence and is easily flustered by pressure. That does not mean Felder should run forward with punches the entire fight, but pushing the pace a little more in the rematch could change the dynamic of the confrontation.