Joe Pyfer thinks fight fans are overlooking him.
The Middleweight knockout artist holds a 4-1 record inside the Octagon, and each of those victories came via stoppage. However, he feels like the focus remains on the sole loss of his UFC career, a February 2024 upset loss to Jack Hermansson. In that bout, Pyfer was able to start strong, but he lost moment as the fight wore on, and Hermansson’s movement really gave him trouble.
Before the official scorecards had even been read, fans cried, “FRAUD CHECK!”
Pyfer doesn’t think that’s fair. In his opinion, he suffered a competitive loss to a veteran, and it’s not like he got knocked out or anything. Compared to something like Bo Nickal’s recent implosion against Reinier de Ridder, it’s not such a bad loss!
“I didn’t get fraud checked. Let’s redefine what fraud checked means. If anybody got fraud checked, it’s Bo Nickal.”#UFC316’s Joe Pyfer says his first octagon loss is not comparable to Bo Nickal’s. pic.twitter.com/YHeCp0dV5a
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) June 4, 2025
“I think a lot of people go off my Jack Hermansson fight, which is fine,” Pyfer said. “That was my first big show, first big test. Walked into it not 100%, had some thigns going on and it wasn’t my best performance. But, I didn’t get rocked, I didn’t got dropped, I didn’t get submitted — I didn’t get fraud checked. Let’s redefine what fraud checked is. If anybody got fraud checked, it’s Bo Nickal. He got finished on his first loss. I lost basically a split-decision, three rounds to two.”
I actually don’t disagree with a lot of Pyfer’s comments here. Losing to Hermansson is understandable for a man with relatively few UFC fights, and at 28 years of age, Pyfer has plenty of time to rebound and get better. He’s not a fraud for losing a single UFC fight, not when champions like Charles Oliveira have proven that an indirect path to UFC gold is possible.
The “split-decision” in question though? Hermansson won that fight cleanly. As for not being 100%, every fighter shows up injured to some degree, so take Dustin Poirier’s advice and hush it up!
This weekend (Sat., June 7, 2025), Pyfer will finally face off versus veteran Kelvin Gastelum. The two were supposed to square off in Mexico City two months ago, but a last-second stomach problem ejected him from the contest and permanently pissed him off.
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