Pyfer and Gastelum were originally set to face off in Mexico City, but the bout was postponed after Pyfer contracted an illness upon his arrival for fight week.
The pair were swiftly rebooked for UFC 316, which takes place this weekend at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where Pyfer feels much more at home.
“Bodybagz” fell to his first career defeat in February 2014 against European veteran Jack Hermansson. But he bounced back in emphatic fashion with a first-round knockout of Canadian scrapper Marc-Andre Barriault at UFC 303. Now he’s looking to stack wins to move him up the middleweight ladder, but addressed that lone defeat to Hermansson as he took aim at fellow middleweight prospect and Dana White’s Contender Series graduate Bo Nickal, who suffered his first career loss in a TKO defeat to Reinier de Ridder in May.
“[The loss to Hermansson] was my first big show. My first big test,” Pyfer told reporters during media day in Newark.
“Walked into it not 100 percent, had some things going on and it wasn’t my best performance, but I didn’t get rocked, I didn’t get dropped, I didn’t get ‘fraud checked.’ So let’s redefine what ‘fraud checked’ is.
“If anybody got fraud checked we can say it’s Bo Nickal. He got finished on his first loss. I lost basically a split decision, three rounds to two. But yeah, I’m prepared for the KG of old.”
Pyfer then turned his attention to the job at hand, and a matchup with Gastelum, who on his day has proved that he can hang with the very best in the world. The best example of that – his UFC 236 classic against Israel Adesanya – is heading into the UFC Hall of Fame this summer.
The former winner of The Ultimate Fighter has experienced mixed fortunes in his UFC career as he’s flip-flopped between the welterweight and middleweight divisions. But Pyfer believes that he has the game to prevail against the Octagon veteran on Saturday night.
“I think Kelvin, just my opinion, I think Kelvin’s afraid of my power early, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrestles to try and tire me out,” he said.
“So we’re more than prepared. I think I have very underrated grappling, very underrated wrestling. I think the only negative people can go off of with my game in that regard is just the fifth round against Jack because I was f*****g exhausted. In a five-round fight, my first five-round fight. I’ll be good.”
Pyfer says that he has the power and the skills to put Gastelum away, and plans to do exactly that as he looks to use his main card spot to showcase his talents in front of a big audience this weekend.
“Listen, I know I can finish him, there’s no question,” he said.
“If my power touches his chin, I can fold anybody in this division, that’s a fact, that’s just what I believe and I believe it’s a fact. You can’t take the kind of shots-especially if I’m sitting on my shots, I’m going to hurt you. At the very least, hurt you and it will lead to a finish.
“Ultimately, my job is to go out there and win. I would love to get a finish over KG, but like I said, I’m prepared for 15 minutes. That’s what I put in my mind, but make no mistake, I will be trying to cause damage and I will be trying to get him out of there.
“Just because he hasn’t been finished by TKO or KO in the cage doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Same thing goes for me, obviously, there’s a first time for everything, but I’m really confident in my skills and my preparation and I think I’ll be able to get him out of there, some way, one way or another.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWH0hnuNmC8&pp=ygUJSm9lIFB5ZmVy
