Joe Pyfer will face an opponent he truly respects in his first UFC main event, but he doesn’t expect the judges to be needed.
Pyfer meets Jack Hermansson in the main event of the UFC’s Feb. 10 fight card in Las Vegas. Pyfer expects the perennial middleweight contender to show a lot of heart, but when it’s all said and done, the Contender Series standout believes his intangibles will be far too much.
“I don’t think his boxing is all that good,” Pyfer said recently on The MMA Hour. “I think that he’s a tough guy. I think he’s got grit more than anything. He’s kind of awkward, he kind of throws sloppy ass combinations. I don’t think that he does anything great, but he’s a tough guy everywhere.
“If you get caught trailing behind him, he just kind of pulls away. He’s got good cardio, so I think my biggest fight for this is understanding that I’ve got to be prepared for 25 minutes. I don’t think it’s going to go 25 minutes. I think I’m too powerful, I think I’m too fast, and I think that’s what excites me about it. I think I can catch him inside of his recklessness.”
The 27-year-old Pyfer has been on a tear since earning a UFC contract, finishing all three of his octagon opponents in a combined 13 minutes. In his most recent appearance, “Bodybagz” submitted Abdul Razak Alhassan in the second round at UFC Vegas 80 in October.
When it comes to getting the opportunity to compete in his first headliner, Pyfer plans to make the most of it, and while he seems very confident in the matchup with Hermansson, that stems from Pyfer feeling like his worst enemy in the fight game is his own body.
“I wouldn’t say there’s anything about that matchup that makes me so confident, other than … a lot of my issues have been injuries,” Pyfer said. “Since I was 24, I’ve just been injury prone. Sometimes those things get in my head, or they effect my training and preparation. It doesn’t stop me, I’ll just fight through the pain sometimes, but it’s like, ‘Man, at some point I’m going to hurt myself again — like, real bad.’
“So I’ve been trying to take care of my body, and take care of my health.”
