Philadelphia — Middleweight Dustin Stoltzfus (16-8) steps inside the octagon for the first time in 2026 when he takes on Mansur Abdul-Malik at UFC 330 in Philadelphia this Saturday, August 15.
He does so with his health finally in order, after “so many cumulative nose breaks,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC 330 media day.
“Sometime during last year I started noticing I was having trouble breathing, especially when I had my head down. And in the last maybe three years or so, I’ve been having a lot of immune system problems, getting sick a lot, also right before fights, really effecting my performance. And then once I started realizing my nose was really blocked up, the hope was clearing that up would open up my sinuses, let everything drain out properly, and fix my immune system problems. Which it seems to have done.”
Stoltzfus noted that “I put it off a little bit, but it was definitely way overdue.” And thankfully, he’s already noticed a difference in training.
“Yeah definitely. The biggest thing is, once I reach my exhaustion point, I recover a lot faster,” Stoltzfus explained. “Before I would hit a certain level, and I would just sort of hit a wall, and it would take about an hour to recover. Now, it takes a couple minutes. And sleep has been a lot better.”
Dustin Stoltzfus normally trains at Xtreme Couture, but had to shift his camp as his opponent also works out of the Las Vegas-based camp. He expects to return there in future. Asked whether he anticipates Abdul-Malik’s recent first career loss to have an impact on him, Stoltzfus stated that after his own run up to the UFC included a 10-fight win streak, “that first loss really effected my confidence. So it might, but it’s not something I’m talking about.”
Watch the full UFC 330 media day appearance by Dustin Stoltzfus above.
