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Local Product Joe Pyfer Gets his Biggest UFC Win Yet
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Local product Joe Pyfer beat former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the main event of Saturday’s fight night in Seattle:
Great fight, and you could tell it wasn’t gonna go the distance based on how the guys were swinging in round 1. Izzy has always been a fighter who uses his brain and his movement and his cage management to full effect, but for some reason he decided to stay within range and brawl when that’s never been his game. If he had backed off and played it smart, Joe might not have won this fight.
But he threw some bombs and took Adesanya to the ground in round 2, got full mount, then switched to the back before retaking full mount, and dropped some nasty ground and pound to secure the W.
That’s four wins in a row for the Penncrest product, who grew up in South Jersey before finding his way to Delco. He now trains at Marquez MMA in Philly. He’s 7-1 in the UFC and 8-1 if you include a win on Dana White’s Contender Series, and he’s going to find himself in the top ten at 185 pounds. It’s a really interesting division with Khamzat Chimaev at the top and plenty of intriguing fighters below him. You wouldn’t mind seeing Pyfer fight Fluffy Hernandez, Brendan Allen, Reinier De Ridder, or Dricus Du Plessis. There’s somewhat of a logjam at the top, with Khamzat fighting Sean Strickland next while Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho round out the top five. But it’s one of the more interesting divisions in the promotion right now.
Seems like Pyfer is in a good spot mentally now as well, summed up by this cut of post-fight comments:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com