Newark, NJ — After their date in Mexico City was scrapped earlier this year, Joe Pyfer finally faced off with TUF champ Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 316 on Saturday, coming away with a unanimous decision win.
Despite the fight going the distance, Pyfer put the pressure on early, coming close to finishing in the opening round.
“It wasn’t my best performance, but I think it was a pretty dominant performance,” he noted following the bout, which arrived just past two months on from their original date in Mexico. That bout saw Pyfer pull out last minute due to stomach issues, which he later blamed on local food, stating he’d never fight there again.
““Sh*thole,” he said in a video posted to social media at the time. “Not going back. Don’t care if that’s offensive to you. You’re not the one fighting. Suck my balls. Literally.”
Joe Pyfer softened his stance following UFC 316 on Saturday, apologizing for his comments but reiterating that there’ll be no more trips to Mexico in his fighting future.
“Ultimately I’m happy. This was a long camp. Ultimately things did not go well for me PR wise in Mexico, and again I want to apologize to my Mexicans out there that may hate me— it was not towards anything of Mexican culture or people. I should have rephrased it a lot kinder and I didn’t, so it is what it is but I do stand firm that I will never fight there again. It’s too big of a risk for a b*tch like me.”
Asked when he’d like to fight again, after basically spending a few extra months preparing for Gastelum, Pyfer revealed that his stomach still wasn’t 100%.
“I want to take like a month or two to just train and keep training. I don’t want to get out of shape, not that I’m ever out of shape out of shape, but I want to get a little bigger.” Pyfer noted that he was a little leaner for UFC 316 due to back-to-back weight cuts. “I just need to fine-tune some things and get my body right again. To be honest I’m still kind of f*cked up from Mexico stomach-wise, and that’s been a real big struggle for me. I’d probably say September, October.”
Watch Joe Pyfer’s full UFC 316 post-fight media appearance above.
