Among the most famous and often repeated words of Dana White’s over the years are the timeless classics “Do you wanna be a f***ing fighter?” from the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and “Never,” from when he was asked in 2011 when we’d see women in the UFC. (The correct answer was 2013.)
A close third? Well, that’s probably, “Be Joe Pyfer.”
In 2022, when Pyfer showed up on the brink of being broke and destitute on “Dana White’s Contender Series,” White put those words out to the world as a sign of respect for all that Pyfer had endured to persevere. It was meant to say, be as hungry as Joe Pyfer — be just as dogged in your pursuits, and as relentless in your resolve. That’s because a couple of years earlier Pyfer had appeared on DWCS and had his arm dislocated when Dustin Stoltzfus dumped him to the canvas, shutting him down for a year-and-a-half. It was a wicked, unfortunate turn. But it didn’t deter nor derail him. If anything, it set up a memorable return.
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When Pyfer broke through against Ozzy Diaz two years later on that same program, he became Exhibit A for White to use for all young fighters coming up.
Be Joe Pyfer.
Fans still echo these words all the time. To the point that, when it’s all said and done, Joe could pen a book with the title, “ToeTagz and BodyBagz: What It’s Like to Be Joe Pyfer.”
“Yeah, a bunch of people always say it whenever they see me, they’re like, ‘Be Joe Pyfer,’” the man who is Joe Pyfer said. “But yeah, I’m not really big on the whole ‘Be Joe Pyfer’ thing, to be honest. It’s kind of weird for me. I don’t want people to be me. I’m not a self-righteous d***head like that. I think what people need to understand about Be Joe Pyfer, Be Joe Pyfer was when I so emotional, and I put my heart on the line. I showed my raw emotion and I tried to finish the fight the whole time. And then when I knocked him out, you could see how passionate I was screaming and upset, bro.”
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Pyfer knocked Diaz out midway through the second round, you might recall.
“It was years of pain and suffering to try and get there and sacrifice. And I finally got there and that was my moment. And I think that’s why the ‘Be Joe Pyfer’ became something, because if anybody knew about my career and how many injuries and surgeries and what I had to battle through while being broke and poor, I was about to be homeless that week if I hadn’t won. That’s what ‘Be Joe Pyfer’ means. It doesn’t mean me.”
Will we see another Performance of the Night from Joe “BodyBagz” Pyfer on Saturday at UFC Mexico?
(Chris Unger via Getty Images)
What’s become far clearer about Pyfer, the Jersey-born middleweight who trains out of Philadelphia, is that he’s running with it. He’s gone a cool 4-1 since that breakthrough moment, with all his victories coming via knockout. His lone loss in that span — a fight with Jack Hermansson in early 2024 — was his first five-round fight, and he dropped a decision. The thing that fueled him through a hellacious mental and physical strain circa 2020-21 is still very much intact.
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And if we’re being honest, he carries a chip on his shoulder, too. He’s not what you’d call a fight game “romantic.”
“I lost to Jack Hermansson, yes, but I had a lot of ailments going into that, a lot of illness, and I still fought five rounds,” he said. “So, I learned a lot and I lost 48-47. Let’s just put that out there, too — it wasn’t 49-46. It was close until I took an eye punch and then he did damage to my front leg. I really couldn’t get going, and obviously he got the takedown late.”
As the old adage goes, you take more from a single loss than you do a dozen wins. There weren’t any long-term effects as far as Pyfer’s confidence was concerned. In his return fight against Marc-Andre Barriault at UFC 303 in June, he scored a quick first-round knockout, bringing his grand total to five KOs in the UFC.
Now he’s set to face the veteran Kelvin Gastelum on Saturday at UFC Mexico, which is the kind of fight that should tell us a lot about who Joe Pyfer really is.
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Many have stood in against Gastelum over the years, including Pyfer’s training partner Sean Brady. Some have looked entirely mortal against him. Others have found themselves being drowned by Gastelum’s grinding strength, for he is built like a hydrant. There are some, like Tim Kennedy, who met with his unbudgeable frame and decided that enough was enough. Kennedy retired after his come-to-Jesus encounter with Gastelum in 2016. It’s a thankless task, fighting Kelvin Gastelum.
And yet of all those who’ve faced him, none have ever knocked Gastelum out. It’s this last thing that speaks to a guy like Pyfer, who headhunts as a way of life.
“Absolutely, I mean, I pride myself on being a knockout artist,” he says. “But it doesn’t mean that I’m going to be negligent in the game plan to get the knockout. I’m going in there to beat Kelvin Gastelum. I want two checks. That’s my main job. Get two f***ing checks.
“But I do think that I am more than capable of knocking out Kelvin Gastelum than anybody else. I think I’m one of the hardest hitting guys he’s ever faced.”
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Who is Joe Pyfer? He’s a guy who puts in the work. He went out to Mexico City, which sits some 7,350 feet above sea level, a couple of weeks out from his fight to acclimate. He has been sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber for two months in preparation of the thin air, which has claimed many victims on the UFC’s previous visits. He’s undergone an intense running program so that his cardio won’t factor in, and he’s been doing extensive breath work.
Quietly, Joe Pyfer is an obsessive worker. Like his Philly friend Brady — whom Pyfer calls his “dirt bike brother,” as both share an affinity for unbeaten paths — he grinds, day in and day out. We saw what Brady looked like last weekend when he dominated Leon Edwards in London, one of the rudest treatments of a tea party in UFC history.
To help keep 2025 the year of Philadelphia, it’s left to Pyfer — who is fighting outside the United States for the first time in his career — to follow suit.
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“Listen man, I don’t care about anything outside of the cage,” he said. “All I care about is Kevin Gastelum in the cage. On the walkout I’ll probably take it in, look around and enjoy the moment. I love the walkouts. They’re very nostalgic to me. But other than that, nothing matters, man. Once I get in the cage, the only focus that I have is going to be on Kelvin and how I’m going to take him out and apply my game plan.
“I think I’m a bigger guy. I’m a more explosive guy. I think our speed’s not really going to be a different, I’m very fast for a big guy and I think my fight IQ is what’s going to carry me to the victory here. I think I’m a very smart person with my defense and my offense, and it’s going to be a fun fight.”
That’s Joe Pyfer.
