Lightweight Luis Felix got his revenge on August 14th when he defeated Julian Lane in a rematch at CES 30. Along with avenging his last loss, he also captured the promotions lightweight championship. For the 30-year old it was easily the biggest victory of his career and a culmination of all the years he’s put into the sport. “It feels really great because I kind accomplished what I wanted to” Felix told MMAOddsBreaker. “I didn’t finish the fight the way I wanted to. The whole fight went as planned; I knew it was going to be this way. I knew it was going to be easy the first few rounds and then he was going to come at me. He was going to be open for me to finish the fight. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to finish it.” Felix (14-8) admitted early in the fight he pulled his hamstring, which made it incredibility difficult to finish the former TUF contestant. “The fight was pretty easy, unfortunately I pulled my hamstring at the end of the first round. Then I tweaked it again in the second round and I really like pulled it bad at the end of the third. Going into the fourth round, I [told my coaches] I kind of pulled it and tweaked it. But my adrenaline was still going, so I managed through those first three rounds. Going into the fifth round minute break it was like an adrenaline dump and I just felt everything. My coach was giving me a hug and yelling ‘C’mon man five more f**ckin minutes’. Honestly I had nothing on my punches, like any punch that I could throw was like a little 12 year old girl trying to punch you and knock you out. That fifth round for me was just to survive; I knew I had the whole fight in the bag. He barely hit me the entire fight, I think for the first three rounds I think he landed one jab, two kicks and that was it. I knew I couldn’t have lost those rounds, I knew I kind of messed him up with my range and timing. For me if I hadn’t had that injury it would have been a perfect time to finish him.” Heading into the championship matchup there was a lot of bad blood brewing between these two 155-pound fighters. While they didn’t squash their feud, Felix did admit he’d be open to a trilogy fight. “I don’t need to be friends with Julian; I don’t know what to say it’s whatever. If we have to do it again [we can] but hopefully it can be on a UFC card. I don’t have much love for the kid but it is what it is, it’s just another fight. It’s over and done with that. But it happened again I’d definitely do it.” The 30-year old would love to keep the momentum going and return to the CES cage as soon as possible, but unfortunately he’s been rehabbing his hamstring for the last few weeks. With that said he’d be interested in competing on CES’s next card on October 30th, but in a non-title bout. “I just kind of been rehabbing with the hamstring and I got three more weeks of that. Then it’s back to work after rehab. I’m still doing everything else I can do outside of what you can’t do with a hamstring. But back to full time training after these three or four weeks left. I know CES Is holding a show in October 30th I would have loved to get on there. Depending on if it’s not a five rounder I could probably manage a three round fight with like a four to five week camp. I don’t know about a five round fight in that short amount of time. If not December, I’d definitely like to defend the title against whoever they put in front of me. Felix doesn’t know who his first title defense will be against, but he does have some idea about what type of opponent he’d like to fight next. “I don’t hate anybody where I’m like I want to fight ‘that guy’. Someone who’s always popped up [on the New England scene] is Ryan Quinn. I know he’s the number two ranked guy here, whether he’s in line or if those rankings mean anything. I know that’s a name that’s been out there before. I wouldn’t mind that fight. Whoever they really want to put out there. I’d like to fight some guys that are coming off the UFC. Just because that’s the level of where I’m going to be fighting and those guys were there. It would be cool to beat them and work my way up. Get in there myself.” Speaking of the UFC, Felix believes he close to a call up to the Las Vegas based promotion, but understands that keeping active and earning wins over notable opponents is the way to get there. “I feel like I’m at that level where I can f**k with those guys. People for some reason enjoy watching my fights. I’ve been putting in work these last three years. That’s my goal; I’m just going to keep fighting until I get there. Whether I have to put five fights in a row, ten fights in a row I’m going to get after it. I started off slow [in my career] and now I’ve made MMA everything. This is Plan A, getting after it and doing as well as I can.” You can follow Luis on Twitter @RockstarFelix and you can listen to the full audio version of the interview on an “Extra” edition of The Parting Shot Podcast (42 mins in)
