The UFC saw another razor-thin fight in a main event on Saturday when Dan Hooker edged Paul Felder at UFC on ESPN+ 26 in Auckland, New Zealand. 

In the immediate aftermath, a disappointed Felder told in-cage interviewer Dan Hardy that he might be done fighting. It should be noted that Felder (17-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) also works as a regular analyst on UFC broadcasts, so if he retires from fighting, he has a fairly solid built-in backup plan for the next phase of his life. 

But should he call it quits? That’s the question MMA Junkie’s Matt Erickson, Nolan King and Danny Segura attempt to answer in the latest edition of Triple Take.

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Matt Erickson: If it’s crossed your mind, and family is the reason, then yes

I don’t get salty about athletes deciding to retire. I get salty when they retire and change their minds later – sometimes multiple times. My childhood sports hero, Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, retired in 1994 and unretired a couple years later. And while I selfishly was glad to see him back, even as a college kid I had to roll my eyes just a little.

If Felder is thinking about retiring, he should do it – and he should stick to it. He’s been interviewing fighters in the cage after their wins (and some losses) for long enough now that he knows how this works. For him to even mention it on the microphone after his split-decision loss to Dan Hooker this past Saturday means one of two things: Either he was looking for a nice, dramatic moment on TV, or the thought of retirement has seriously crossed his mind enough times leading up to the fight that it came out organically.

I don’t take Felder for the type who would be disingenuous and pull out that retirement bit to court some kind of sympathy with fans, or use it as a way to fish for compliments to have people tell him, “Oh, Paul, you’re still so good! Don’t retire!”

If he said it, it means he was thinking about it. And if he was thinking about it, then he has enough doubts about staying active that he should listen to them.

Physically, the man is a beast. He’ll turn 35 in a couple months, but these days, that’s nothing. It used to be that closer to 40 than 30 was the downslope, but it doesn’t have to be like that anymore, and from all indications, Felder seems like he could keep going and be highly competitive against anyone in the UFC’s lightweight division.

He’s got five losses in the UFC – and three of them have been split decisions. He’s only been stopped once, and that was by a doctor. He’s got five bonuses and is regarded as one of the division’s most reliable fighters when it comes to bringing it.

When I say Felder should retire if it’s something that’s been on his mind, it has nothing to do with any kind of performance issues inside the cage, or any kind of head trauma he may have taken in his many wars.

Instead, it has to do with a man who was in tears over the thought of continuing to put himself through fight camps that take him away from home a couple months at a time – knowing what they could be doing to a 4-year-old child at home.

“That might be it for me,” Felder told Dan Hardy in the cage. “I’ve got a 4-year-old at home that misses me every time I go away like this. I don’t know if … I’m not sure. I’ll still go back and talk to my family.”

Felder right now is presumably healthy (after he heals up from his “Fight of the Night” with Hooker, anyway), he’s highly competitive in the division, he’s a well-spoken representative of the UFC and seems to be well-respected in the MMA community. He’s got a side hustle doing analyst work for UFC broadcasts on ESPN, and he gets better at that gig every time out.

He should walk away now because it’s crossed his mind, and the first instinct usually is the right one. If he says it’s because of the impact his fight camps have on his family, then he should put family first, walk away with head held high, and make his contributions to the sport in the broadcast realm. There’s 100 percent no shame in doing that if that’s the direction he chooses. And if that’s indeed what he does, hopefully he stays retired and doesn’t second-guess himself later or allow anyone else to change his mind.

Next page: Nolan King: Maybe, maybe not – but no impulse decisions