Joe Pyfer just wants credit where credit is due.
According to Pyfer, he set the record for the most powerful punch at the UFC Performance Institute, a claim that he has made in several interviews including on The Joe Rogan Experience where he provided video evidence for host Joe Rogan.
However, Pyfer apparently is yet to be granted the official status of world’s hardest puncher and that existing doubt has him salty ahead of his main event fight with Jack Hermansson this Saturday at UFC Vegas 86.
“This s*** pisses me off,” Pyfer said at media day on Wednesday. “I hit the f****** machine, the same machine, and I hit it with a 16-ounce glove. For all these nerds out there that don’t understand science, I hit it with a 16-ounce glove. That means I didn’t even get to hit it as hard as I could because I had a big pad. So I broke the record with a big glove, I broke it four or five times, I broke it in front of the operations guys.
“There was a heavyweight from Brazil that was hitting it, couldn’t even come close to it. His coach hit it, couldn’t come close to it. Brendan Allen’s coach, ‘Tuco,’ hit it, didn’t come close to it, and they didn’t want to give it to me officially. I don’t know why.”
While it’s unclear why the UFC PI’s record is in dispute, the punching machine has been the subject of headlines in the past, particularly when former UFC heavyweight star Francis Ngannou was previously credited with setting the record.
Pyfer doesn’t hold any animosity towards his power punch rival, but wants the record to be set straight at some point.
“And then everybody makes this narrative about talking about f****** oiling up Dana’s ass and s*** and that—what the f*** did he say—that it’s like Dana White trying to take out Ngannou,” Pyfer continued. “Bro, I got nothing but respect for anybody that’s ever stepped in this cage, that has ever done anything to change their life. He comes from the slums. You hear these stories all the time, you’ve got people like Charles Oliveira, Francis Ngannou, for f***’s sake, even my teammate Andre who’s had his own, we’ve all come from struggles to be something. Then I get discredited because I hit harder.
“S*** pisses me off. F*** those nerds, whoever told me that I didn’t get that f****** score. I’ll do it again and, just to say this, I had a torn rotator cuff when I hit it and then I had to stop because I hurt myself. F*** those nerds.”
There has been no questioning Pyfer’s effectiveness inside the cage as eight of his 12 career wins have come by way of knockout. That includes the Contender Series win over Osman Diaz that earned him his UFC contract, and two first-round knockouts of octagon opponents Gerald Meerschaert and Alen Amedovski.
He doesn’t expect his fight with Hermansson to go any differently.
“I think I knock Jack out,” Pyfer said. “He’s got a 29 percent takedown accuracy, I’ve watched all of his videos extensively. He’s very desperate with a lot of his takedowns and I think they’re very slow. I think what you guys are going to realize is there’s a big speed differential between me and Jack. There’s a big boxing differential between me and Jack.
“We can have all these plans all we want but when you get in there and you feel somebody’s presence and you feel their intention and you can see that look in their face that they’re trying to hurt you, I think sometimes it can either make or break somebody that you’re fighting. So I want to hurt him and I’m ready to bang for 25 minutes, so let’s go, brother, let’s rumble.”
Watch Pyfer’s full scrum below, courtesy of MMA Mania.