Joe Pyfer clears up confusion over UFC Vegas 80 choke-out win: ‘You’ve got to go to sleep’

Joe Pyfer made sure the fight was finished at UFC Vegas 80.

At the latest UFC APEX card, Pyfer made it three wins in three octagon appearances with an arm-triangle choke submission of middleweight veteran Abdul Razak Alhassan. The submission didn’t just force a tap-out from Alhassan, it put him out cold, as Pyfer was left with no choice but to keep the squeeze on until referee Mark Smith officially stopped the bout.

The fight-ending sequence was slightly muddled as Alhassan appeared to be making a tapping gesture, only with his fist instead of the flat of his hand, which made it unclear as to whether he was signaling his submission or attempting to punch himself free. Smith was heard asking Alhassan if he meant to tap, but the fighter went unconscious before he could respond.

“I know everything that’s going on in the fight,” Pyfer said, going over the finish on The MMA Hour. “I heard that, I felt the tap. I knew it was a tap and it wasn’t a punch, but I’m not letting go. That’s just not me. There’s a good reason there’s a ref in there, I’m not letting go.

“If I had let go out of respect, I think he would have denied, like, ‘I didn’t tap,’ and then he would have came through and he would have tried to keep fighting. I didn’t want that to be the case. I felt the little taps, I knew they weren’t punches, and I just was like, ‘My man, you’ve got to go to sleep, brother. I can’t let go.’”

Pyfer’s submission was preceded by a spectacular slam that looked more like something you’d see in an AEW ring than the UFC APEX. The Pennsylvanian fighter has already developed a reputation for having heavy hands with first-round knockouts in his past two fights, and against Alhassan he was able to show another dimension to his game.

Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Though Pyfer calls the arm-triangle a favorite move of his, this was actually the first time he’s won a pro bout with it.

“It was funny,” Pyfer said. “My coach Jonavin Webb, my jiu-jitsu coach, that’s like my go-to move, I love that, especially on that left side. We had drilled that in the beginning of the camp until I got hurt, but yeah, that’s my go-to move.

“I heard [Alhassan’s] coaches when he had his arm over my head-and he does this thing where he posts up on his elbow because I slammed him, but that’s how he gets up, he gets that little bit of space so he can get up on the one hip and then he explodes up. I had really known once I got that takedown I was going to be able to pinch that shoulder and get that head-and-arm.”

Pyfer has now won five straight fights and is comfortably moving up the rankings after notching wins over more experienced opponents like Alhassan and Gerald Meerschaert. He’s admitted to having issues with staying healthy between fights, but he wasn’t going to let a poor camp deter him from squaring off with Alhassan.

Or from showing that he can finish in more ways than one.

“I just knew I was better everywhere and I knew I could lean on myself to pull through,” Pyfer said. “Listen, we’re all banged up, I’m not the only guy, but I’m just glad I got the victory. I got my bonus. I did what I said I was going to do, which was dominate, and I also got a submission victory. I got to show a little jiu-jitsu Joe up in this s***.”