Joe Pyfer: 'I'll be right back where I belong' with UFC 303 win over Marc-Andre Barriault

LAS VEGAS – Joe Pyfer doesn’t seem too concerned with public perception after his first UFC loss.

Pyfer (12-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) turned many heads with his performance on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022, including the tagline UFC CEO Dana White dropped when announcing he was heading to the big show: “Be Joe Pyfer.”

“Bodybagz” lived up to the hype in his first three fights. Pyfer finished Alen Amedovski, Gerald Meerschaert and Abdul Razak Alhassan all before the third round. However, in his fourth outing, he reached the third round, and even the final horn, but lost a unanimous decision to Jack Hermansson.

Pyfer immediately felt people jumping off his train after his first UFC loss. He looks to rebound at UFC 303 against Marc-Andre Barriault and has stayed true to his self-imposed promise of being quiet in the lead-up.

“The only thing that changed was the social media world, but nothing has changed in my heart and nothing has changed in my mind,” Pyfer told reporters at the UFC 303 media day. “… We live in a woke f*cking world with a bunch of little weak b*tches. So, I don’t have much respect for a lot of people that have to bite their tongue because it’s the social norm. Social norm doesn’t make it right, so there’s a lot of sh*t that I don’t f*ck with.”

While tuning out the change in public perception, Pyfer says he has been working hard at getting back into the win column. During this camp he focused on dialing in his nutrition plan and feels great just days ahead of his fight against Barriault (16-7 MMA, 5-6 UFC). If he performs like he believes he can, and picks up his fourth UFC stoppage, he expects people to immediately come back around.

“Everybody’s acting like I got knocked out, choked out or something,” Pyfer said. “Bro, I lost a decision and I lost by one round, and in that third round, I got hit in the eyeball, couldn’t see the guy for the rest of the fight. So, it’s just people’s delusion. It’s like I lost by that much. Dude’s got 17 UFC fights, that was my fifth one, and I’m out there performing at that on my fifth fight.

“I’ll be right back where I belong, trust me.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.