UFC featherweight Jared Gordon explained why he won’t be in the corner of his good friend Paul Felder in his fight against Rafael dos Anjos.

Gordon and Felder are teammates and training partners at Roufusport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not to mention really good friends outside of the cage. Back on Fight Island in July, Felder famously got up from the commentary booth where he was announcing the card to corner Gordon to victory against Chris Fishgold. When Felder was announced to be fighting against dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 14 this Saturday on five days’ notice, most assumed Gordon would be in Felder’s corner. However, that won’t be the case.

Gordon took to his Twitter on Tuesday to reveal that he will not be cornering Felder since he was recently in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. With Gordon out of the corner, he sent a funny DM to dos Anjos on Instagram, asking him to give the fans a kickboxing match against Felder instead of using his wrestling skills.

⁦@felderpaul⁩ asked me to corner him Saturday, I snap called. After consideration I decided I couldn’t. I trained on Friday with a person who tested positive for covid the next day. I feel fine, but dk if Im carrying it. But Im still doing my work from the sidelines! pic.twitter.com/iN8GZLvxyU

— Jared Gordon (@JFlashGordonMMA) November 10, 2020

@felderpaul asked me to corner him Saturday,  I snap called. After consideration I decided I couldn’t. I trained on Friday with a person who tested positive for covid the next day. I feel fine, but dk if Im carrying it. But Im still doing my work from the sidelines!

“Hey RDA, please don’t wrestle Paul on Saturday. Make it a strait (sic) kickboxing match, give him the best chance possible. Yours truly, Paul’s best friend,” Gordon wrote to dos Anjos.

The betting odds opened for the newly-booked Felder vs. dos Anjos fight, with RDA opening as a -160 betting favorite and dos Anjos opening as a +140 underdog. It should be a very competitive fight between two lightweights in the world, and even though Gordon won’t be there in Felder’s corner, he made the right call in withdrawing just in case he does have COVID-19.

Do you think Jared Gordon not being in the corner of Paul Felder will affect his performance in the fight?