Athletes
Joe Pyfer | Staying True To Himself
Middleweight Hopeful Talks Growth, Outlook Ahead Of Seattle Showdown With Israel Adesanya
“What’s the most misunderstood thing about me?” Joe Pyfer says, repeating my question with a smile. “I think the most misunderstood thing about me is that I’m angry all the time. I could be — I will say I have a short fuse, but I don’t think I’m angry all the time.”
Posted up inside Webb Fitness & MMA in Sewell, New Jersey, the 29-year-old is in good spirits. He is engaging and talkative, displaying an insane level of recall when he walks us through each of his UFC finishes in fine detail, and mellow enough to accept the playful ribbing directed his way after he failed to set his alarm the previous evening and overslept, prompting a change in plans.
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He’s far from angry, but there is an intensity about Pyfer that never is never completely turned off, and it’s amplified by his physical presence. While he’s not overly tall for the middleweight division, standing 6-foot-1, the Dana White’s Contender Series grad has broad shoulders and stands tall, taking up the maximum space available to him. Where some people shrink themselves, Pyfer walks with his head high, always, refusing to change how he carries himself in order to improve the comfort of others.
Pyfer, who will face off with Israel Adesanya in the main event of the UFC’s return to Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle next month, admits that coming out of the gates, he was emotional and, yes, angry. But you would be too if it felt like your lifelong dream was snatched away from you right when it seemed like you were finally going to make it.
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“I was just very emotional when I got to the UFC because I got denied so many times — my arm breaking in half, injuries, sickness, and all these things,” begins Pyfer, who has been chasing a career in mixed martial arts since he was a kid and grew up in an abusive household, a lot of which he shared in the outstanding documentary Journey to UFC: Joe Pyfer, which is currently available on several streaming platforms. “Before I got in the UFC, I broke my elbow on the Contender Series, and I got to watch that guy (Dustin Stoltzfus) go on and have a mediocre UFC record of like 2-5 in his first (seven) fights that he had, and that’s a TKO loss on my record, and it bothered me.
“At that point, I had spent 20 years in this sport, I didn’t make it, and I was like, ‘Man, did I lie to everybody? Am I really not good enough?’ It was frustrating. I felt like I was in a hole because I couldn’t prove…”
Pyfer stops for a second, draws in a deep breath and exhales.
“I got the opportunity, and I f***** it up, and then when I got the second opportunity, that’s why I was screaming and angry. I’m a passionate dude; I’m a very intense person.”
The gruesome elbow injury suffered against Stoltzfus on Season 4 of Dana White’s Contender Series sidelined Pyfer for well over a year. He returned to the cage at the end of 2021, earning a second-round stoppage win under the Cage Fury FC banner, and then returned to Las Vegas the following summer, stopping Ozzy Diaz in the second round to claim his spot on the UFC roster.
UFC CEO Dana White’s emphatic “Be Joe Pyfer!” speech put him in the spotlight straight away, and after three straight stoppage wins to begin his UFC tenure, Pyfer landed a main event opportunity against veteran Jack Hermansson. He started strong, but the relatively inexperienced American faded, allowing “The Joker” to rally and claim the unanimous decision win.
It was an outcome that totally shifted the way Pyfer approaches his career.
“When I got in the UFC, everybody was so supportive, so nice, so kind and then I saw the absolute flipside of the sport that I had always heard about but never experienced,” Pyfer said. “Then when you experience the hate and this and that, people fault you for what you say — we’re in a tense, emotional sport as it is; we’re fighting each other, punching each other in the face, there are life-changing injuries that I’ve had in this sport, and I’m probably not gonna age well.
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“I take things to heart when people are making fun of something I’ve put my life’s work into,” continues the Marquez MMA standout. “Social media was the real change for me: I disassociated from it probably a year after the Jack fight because it takes a little bit. You can say you don’t care, but then sometimes you wanna respond. Now if I respond, it’s pure entertainment and comedy to me because the perspective is ‘why would I care about somebody’s opinions that I’ve never met, that doesn’t know me as a person or understand who I am?’
“‘I just wanna fight’ is what I’ve said, and which is true,” he adds. “I don’t want to do all the other antics because I think it takes the love for the sport away from the fighter. I don’t mind a little drama here and there as long as it pertains to hyping a fight.”
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As much as he can be sarcastic, which undeniably rubs some people the wrong way, the piece that has always stood out to me from years of speaking with Pyfer is the “life’s work” element and how deeply connected he is to it.
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This dream helped him navigate his upbringing, propelled him through periods of homelessness, and carried him through the elbow injury that could have halted his career entirely. Reaching the UFC was his primary focus from an early age, and when paired with the steady diet of obstacles and doubters he encountered along the way, it makes you protective and defensive, which some people misconstrue as anger.
Now a handful of years into fighting on the biggest stage in the sport and stationed inside the middleweight rankings, Pyfer is no longer approaching things from an “I’ll Show You!” standpoint. Instead, he’s taking it all in and thinking about what his younger self would think of where he is today.
“I think that’s how I’ve been viewing this, and it means I was never crazy,” he says when asked how that driven kid would feel about where he is now. “It means I was true to myself, I was true to my beliefs, I was true to something I love, and Little Joey Pyfer from Pittsgrove, New Jersey who had no shot in the beginning — at least in the world’s view of making it to this level, fighting who I’m fighting… It’s a proud moment. I know I’m competing with the absolute best in the world, and I also am one of the absolute best in the world.
“Being No. 15, it really doesn’t mean that much to me, but when I really look at it, I’m No. 15 in the entire world, and I represent the U.S. flag and America, and so that’s huge,” he adds. “These are the parts that I never dreamed of: my biggest dream was being in the UFC and walking out to a crowd that was chanting my name, so this is all a bonus, and I’m super-grateful for it.
“I think Little Joey P would be proud of who I am today and who I’m becoming.”
Big Joey P should be too.
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