UFC middleweight Joe Pyfer doubled down on his wild rant on Mexico following his withdrawal from UFC Mexico City.
Joe Pyfer isn’t a fan of Mexico and doesn’t plan on fighting there ever again.
Pyfer and former UFC interim title challenger Kelvin Gastelum were supposed to square off in the UFC Mexico City co-main event earlier this year, before Pyfer withdrew on hours’ notice due to illness. Months later, Pyfer will return to the Octagon against Gastelum on the UFC 316 card next weekend in Newark.
Pyfer went on a wild post-event rant after his withdrawal from UFC Mexico City, detailing a horrific fight week experience and promising not to fight in the country ever again. The comments received a lot of backlash from Mexican fans.
Pyfer, one of the top knockout artists in the UFC’s middleweight division, ruffled a lot of feathers with his past remarks. But after receiving fan backlash for months ahead of UFC 316, Pyfer defended his comments and reasserted his position about the experience of competing in Mexico.
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Joe Pyfer addresses criticism of wild rant against Mexico
In a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Pyfer was asked about his controversial post-event rant on Mexico following his short-notice withdrawal.
“Look at it this way, I don’t have to go into specifics, but if the country was so great, it wouldn’t have so many problems,” Pyfer said. “What I said was misconstrued, I said ‘If that’s what fighting in that country is, then f— that place, it’s a s——,’ and so on and so forth. I don’t know why we’d risk fighting there. The risk is so great, I got sick twice, and I never said anything about it…
“[Daniel Cormier] went on and said ‘Man, my stomach was messed up, I hate that place’, and nobody gave him s— for it. I’m a little bit more unapologetic, it’s nothing towards the people, the people were fine and I had nothing to say bad about the people. It’s just as far as fighting there and fighting at that elevation and altitude, why would I risk that?”
Pyfer wouldn’t retract his comments and doubled down on his stance that he doesn’t plan to fight in Mexico ever again.
After clarifying his recent controversial remarks outside of the cage, Pyfer is looking to make a statement inside the Octagon. A win over Gastelum could potentially move Pyfer into the middleweight Top 15 and continue his winning ways since suffering his first UFC loss to Jack Hermansson.
Kelvin Gastelum criticized Joe Pyfer ahead of UFC 316 rescheduled fight
Tensions are ramping up between Pyfer and Gastelum ahead of UFC 316. After news of the rescheduled bout broke, Gastelum took a shot at Pyfer’s recent remarks on Mexico, adding the fuel to the fire of their upcoming middleweight clash.
Pyfer returns to the cage for the first time since knocking out Marc-Andre Barriault at UFC 303 last year. He bounced back in a big way after a unanimous decision loss to Hermansson in Feb. 2024.
Gastelum is in a ‘must-win’ situation entering UFC 316, after dropping three of his last five fights. After a brief return to welterweight, Gastelum returns to middleweight for a chance at another potential title run.