UFC FN Pre-fight Discussion Hermansson vs. Pyfer Sat. Feb. 10 Prelims 4pm ET, Main 7pm ET, ESPN+

[Neck&Neck]

Precision Pyfer Power Punching will put Hermannson out by the 2nd round

It has been told

 

[TITS]

This just looks like one giant prelim card.

 

[TITS]

Precision Pyfer Power Punching will put Hermannson out by the 2nd round

It has been told

That would be depressing.

 

[Sixstring]

Ok @Luthien - can you redeem yourself!?

 

[Luthien]

Ok @Luthien - can you redeem yourself!?

Let me think ><

 

[Luthien]

@Sixstring how about this fight I got a good feeling about Brasil

 

[BEATDOWNS]

 

[Kryptt]

@Sixstring how about this fight I got a good feeling about Brasil

Everyone gets excited looking at her knees!

 

[Sixstring]

@Sixstring how about this fight I got a good feeling about Brasil

Okay. Yikes. Risky. Pretty sure I'll win though. I think we bet 47 times and I've won 53 of those.

 

[Luthien]

Okay. Yikes. Risky. Pretty sure I'll win though. I think we bet 47 times and I've won 53 of those.

Use this when you lose for 1 week I'm too lazy to make a new one XD

 

[Sixstring]

View attachment 1028641
Use this when you lose for 1 week I'm too lazy to make a new one XD

When you lose -

 

[Luthien]

When you lose -

 

[The Boomerang]

What in the sexism

Only 1 WMMA fight out of 14 of them things



Will not watch

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

The Ultimate Fighting Championship trots out the middleweight division with a well-matched lineup that sees only one betting favorite at -300 or higher this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The stakes may not be the greatest, but there will be some movement at 185 pounds at night’s end, and a few contenders may emerge. Join the UFC Fight Night 236 edition of Prime Picks as we juggle two of those 185ers, look forward to a banger in the co-main event and suggest a two-for-one that should safely cash.

Jack Hermansson (+205)​

Hermansson possesses all the tools to separate the wheat from the chaff in the UFC’s middleweight division. This has kept him in or around the Top 10 for quite some time, with slightly above-average power coupled with the ability to maintain a high pace, decent wrestling chops and not a ton of defensive liabilities. On the other hand, “The Joker” can get cracked. He is not impervious to getting caught, and he tends to lose the bigger fights of his career. Consider him the 2024 version of fellow UFC Fight Night 236 competitor Brad Tavares, whose all-around skill set kept him in contention while never seriously stamping himself as a contender. With what he brings to the table as a sizeable underdog, the value is on Hermansson in the main event.



Joseph Pyfer is an offensive beast, and he introduced his submission abilities to fans in his last appearance by putting Abdul Razak Alhassan to sleep with an arm-triangle choke. Until then, those seeing him on the major stage had largely seen Pyfer’s timing and punching power on display, as he put the stamp on Alen Amedovski and Gerald Meerschaert. About eight years Hermansson’s junior, Pyfer will undoubtedly possess a speed advantage. Still, Hermansson only presents himself as a fighter who relies on quick attacks and sudden movements when he pursues submissions—ask Kelvin Gastelum, David Branch or the aforementioned Meerschaert. If Pyfer puts hands on his opponent early and often, he can look every bit of the -260 favorite that books have him now.

The underdog has shown plenty of times his capacity to go hard late in fights and not simply wilt when 15 minutes elapse. On the other hand, Pyfer has only gone the distance once as a pro, which also serves as the lone occasion he has reached Round 3. Every minute that ticks off the clock, bettors should have more faith in the Swede to get his hand raised. Should Hermansson push past the early blitzes and make Pyfer work for it, he can tire out the self-proclaimed “trending superstar” and remind him it takes a lot of energy to be a rock star.

Dan Ige (-180)​

The blueprint has been laid to beat the Hawaiian bruiser. Put him on his back and keep him there for prolonged stretches, and he will not be able to punch you in the face. In his last two defeats, Ige has been grounded a combined 14 times thanks to Movsar Evloev and Bryce Mitchell. Andre Fili can act as a wet blanket, stifling opponents like Charles Jourdain and Artem Lobov over the years, but those men are a far cry from the perennial contender in Ige. If Fili cannot take the fight to the mat, it will be up to him to make the most of his three-inch reach and height advantages to keep just enough of a distance to potshot his way to victory.

Fili takes this fight on short notice, although the Team Alpha Male staple rarely gets out of shape when out of camp. Conditioning will not likely play a factor unless he backs up most of the matchup, as he does not prefer to fight off his back foot. Both men may come into this co-headliner with complicated game plans, but when they boil it down, these two featherweights would like nothing more than to point down to the floor, nod to one another and start trading leather. Brawls may ensue across this 15-minute encounter, and of the two, Fili has been taken out while Ige’s beard has held together against the fists of names like Josh Emmett, Calvin Kattar and Chan Sung Jung. Ige on the front foot crowding Fili in the pocket will be his best path to victory, which he prefers to employ.

Rodolfo Vieira (-120)​

This is the second verse of this middleweight pairing, the same as the first. Once scheduled for November, Armen Petrosyan fell ill on fight night to scuttle the matchup. A few months later, the lines are almost the same, shifting slightly higher for Vieira from -115 to -120. Petrosyan can be found at +100 at best on the other side of the equation. What has not changed is the value maximization in the Vieira pick, with his winning inside the distance still in the neighborhood of +135. This stylistic matchup remains as stark as it can get on paper, but of the two, Vieira has a better chance on the feet than Petrosyan does on his back. A bet on the Brazilian is still not a waste at these close odds, especially against a fighter susceptible to controlling grapplers.

The only two people to escape without serious harm against Vieira did so in ways Petrosyan has not shown the capability to emulate. Chris Curtis completely nullified all 20 attempts from “The Black Belt Hunter” to take things horizontally, while Anthony Hernandez allowed Vieira to blow his gas tank embarrassingly and hit a beauty of a guillotine choke. The multiple-time Mundials and ADCC champion will use his striking, which can sometimes consist of looping shots that leave him wide open for counters, to close the distance. From there, it is only a matter of time until he either drives through the hips with a double-leg entry or uses the clinch to hit a trip. The Armenian, by way of Russia, will have to rely on a sprawl-and-brawl approach if he hopes to be the third to defeat the vaunted grappler, and Petrosyan has to imagine that the floor is lava. It will be up to Petrosyan to stay on the outside or force Vieira to expend his energy on low-percentage takedown attempts to get his hand raised.

DOUBLE PLAY (-162)​

Konklak Suphisara-Bruna Brasil Lasts Over 1.5 Rounds (-425)​

Devin Clark-Marcin Prachnio Lasts Over 1.5 Rounds (-325)​

Rather than a straight pick for this last section, due in part to a dearth of options, we look to a time-based twofer. While the two weight classes are leagues apart, at strawweight and light heavyweight, both matches have particular indicators that they will go long. For the first selection, much of the designated over is because of Konklak Suphisara, more famously known by her Thai combat name of “Loma Lookboonmee.” Win or lose, eight of the Thai’s 11 professional outings have heard the final bell, with nine in total going beyond the 2:30 mark of Round 2. Submissions have been the reason for her to get out of there sooner, and that is not something the tall, rangy Brasil presents with any specific danger or deficiency. This could play out on the feet or in the clinch, but the power is not there at this level to wrap fights early for either woman.

For one of these two in the 205-pound collision, it would be smooth sledding on paper. Prachnio sports a knockout rate below 70%, while Clark has more defeats via strikes than on the scorecards. That all falls apart when examining the performances of each man in the Octagon. Prachnio has earned just one stoppage after eight walks to the UFC cage—against the brave but fallible Isaac Villanueva. At the same time, Clark’s lone finish came over William Knight, another losing competitor no longer on the roster. Clark’s durability may be a factor, but fortunately, Prachnio does not celebrate lights-out power or lightning-quick submission prowess to take advantage of the sluggish “Brown Bear.” Prachnio is no spring chicken, either, so this has all the makings of one that takes a while to get anywhere.

Prime Picks: UFC Fight Night 236 ‘Hermansson vs. Pyfer’

Sherdog soothsayer Jay Pettry juggles two of the middleweights on the bill, looks forward to a banger in the co-main event and suggests a two-for-one that should safely cash.

www.sherdog.com

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Joseph Pyfer could have called it a day, and no one would have thought less of him for it.

The 27-year-old Vineland, New Jersey, native somehow finds himself on the precipice of contention in the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division, some 1,300 days after he suffered a gruesome career-threatening arm injury on Dana White’s Contender Series. Mere hours away from a showdown opposite Jack Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 236 main event on Saturday in Las Vegas, the same resilience that allowed him to back away from the ledge of self-doubt now has him in position to climb into the Top 10 at 185 pounds. The UFC’s chief executive took note almost immediately. Others, some of them begrudgingly, have followed suit.



“The target on my back was people discrediting Dana White saying ‘Be Joe Pyfer’ without understanding the message I interpreted it as. I don’t think it was be me fight-wise,” Pyfer said at the pre-fight media day for UFC Fight Night 236. “It was ‘Be Joe Pyfer’—the kid got turned away, broke his arm, almost two years out. My career was supposed to be over, OK? Over. Not f----- hurt. Over. I had to get two major surgeries. I was told I had a 30% chance of success. I still lost like half a f------ inch on my reach.”

Pyfer has rattled off five consecutive finishes—they include his contract-clinching technical knockout of Osman Diaz in his return to DWCS—since he recovered from the Aug. 11, 2020 injury that threatened to put him out to pasture, proving much to himself and to those who doubted him. Resolve became a powerful ally.


“I wasn’t supposed to make it, and I came back,” Pyfer said. “That’s what that message is. I didn’t even have the best performance when I won my contract. I just fought with emotion. I fought with passion. You could see it. I wanted to win. My whole life rode on that. The only reason I’m here is because of that.”

More important business now beckons. Hermansson, on paper, appears to be Pyfer’s most formidable opponent in his most significant opportunity to date. Few fighters draw a headlining assignment in the UFC after just three appearances in the organization. Pyfer has done his part to keep it all in proper perspective.

“It’s another fight,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if we were opening the card or last on the card, I haven’t put any emphasis on being the main event. It’s pretty surreal. I get pretty choked up seeing myself on a poster, especially where I come from and the doubts that have transpired along this career that I’ve been on. I’m super grateful for it. I got like 20 of my most loved people out here. I got almost my whole team out here. That means the most to me.”

Pyfer last suited up at UFC Fight Night 229, where he put Abdul Razak Alhassan to sleep with an arm-triangle choke in the second round of their Oct. 7 confrontation. The decisive victory moved him to 3-0 inside the Octagon and followed back-to-back first-round finishes of Alen Amedovski and Gerald Meerschaert. Even as critics continue with their whispers, Pyfer believes he has done more than enough to warrant a spot at the top of the bill.

“Why am I not deserving? I talk my s---. I back it up. I’m not saying I can’t lose, but dare to say what you feel,” he said. “That’s what I’m doing. I’m confident in what I say. I’m confident in what I believe. It’s not something I convince myself to believe. I deserve to be here. I’m active. I talk truthfully. I would watch me if I wasn’t in the UFC. I say that humbly. I’m not saying that as an arrogant prick. I think I’m good on the mic. I think I’m good doing my job, doing good on these interviews. I don’t really care to do them necessarily. I wouldn’t go out of my way to do them, but it’s a part of my job.

“I could be working a 9-to-5 that I know I would get fired from, so yeah, I am appreciative,” Pyfer added. “I’m thankful to be here. I’m taking it in as much as I can without being distracted.”

Most expect Hermansson to be a willing and able dance partner. The former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder owns a 10-6 record in the UFC, his run on the roster highlighted by wins over David Branch, Ronaldo Souza and Kelvin Gastelum. While he enters the cage on the rebound following a second-round technical knockout loss to Roman Dolidze at UFC on ESPN 42 in December 2022, Hermansson has not suffered consecutive defeats in more than a decade.

“Jack’s good everywhere, not great at any one thing,” Pyfer said. “He’s got good cardio. He’s got good boxing. He’s got good kickboxing. He’s got good grappling. I don’t see anything in that man’s skill set where I think he will ever be a champion or title challenger again. I think all the pressure’s on him. I think he’s a good dude outside of the fight, but I don’t like him because he’s trying to take my other half. He’s not my f----- friend. I made adjustments as far as my approach to this fight. Stylistically, Jack’s a new challenge. I don’t care that he’s fought some of the best. He’s lost to some of the best.

“One of the things he kept saying in the promo—it’s the only video that I’ve watched—is that he’s not scared of me,” he added. “He must have said it two or three times. I’m like, ‘Look, homie. You are scared of me. You won’t stand in the pocket and trade with me. That’s why you’re saying it.’ This isn’t about who’s afraid of who. This is about who can beat who. It doesn’t matter if you’re scared or not. Often, I’m very nervous going into a fight anyway. I think Jack’s got a lot of pressure on him right now. He’s tough, but I don’t think he’s that great.”

Pyfer understands the high stakes that are in play at the UFC Apex. He plans to bask in the limelight, not shrink in the face of it.

“I’m here to test myself, push myself to the limits and find out where that bitch in me lies,” he said. That’s why I’m in this. I want to know how far I can go. I’m not going to let any man stand across from me and tell me that they’re taking it from me. On the outside, it puts me in the Top 15. I don’t personally care where I’m ranked, but from my life and where I’ve come from and the odds that I’ve defied, it puts me right where I’ve always believed I belong, and that’s among the best.

“I started competing at 5 years old in jiu-jitsu tournaments,” Pyfer added. “This is my whole life. When I tell you I couldn’t be successful at anything else other than this sport, I truly mean that. This is my Plan A, and it’s all I have.”

No Average Joe

Joseph Pyfer will do battle with Jack Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 236 headliner, as he distances himself further from a 2020 arm injury that put his career in jeopardy.

www.sherdog.com

 

[PurpleStorm]

Hey @Kowboy On Sherdog, appreciate your consistent contributions to the pre-fight threads.

There's a lot of good contemt on sherdog, like the two articles above. Enjoyed reading an underdog take on the main event and the interview with Pyfer.

Pyfer should know we aren't making fun of him or Dana. The "Be Joe Pyfer" comment is epic. He's an inspiration for what he's overcome and his never say die attitude, Hermansson's game. He has good endurance. Highly anticipating the main event.

 

[dog y]

This just looks like one giant prelim card.

Indeed. After the last card, which was atrocious, I'm definitely not looking forward to this.

 

[STRAWBOSS]

damn I read this list and didn't realize it goes from the pre-lim to main card and I was feeling like a total casual not recognizing any names in what I initially thought was the main. I mean I am fat and stupid and not as informed as our better commenters here but I wouldn't call myself a casual.

 

[wufabufa]

 

[PurpleStorm]

Solid picks wufa. Are you joining in the PbP discussion?