“I was just very emotional when I got to the UFC because I got denied so many times — my arm breaking in half, injuries, sickness, and all these things,” begins Pyfer, who has been chasing a career in mixed martial arts since he was a kid and grew up in an abusive household, a lot of which he shared in the outstanding documentary Journey to UFC: Joe Pyfer, which is currently available on several streaming platforms. “Before I got in the UFC, I broke my elbow on the Contender Series, and I got to watch that guy (Dustin Stoltzfus) go on and have a mediocre UFC record of like 2-5 in his first (seven) fights that he had, and that’s a TKO loss on my record, and it bothered me.
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“At that point, I had spent 20 years in this sport, I didn’t make it, and I was like, ‘Man, did I lie to everybody? Am I really not good enough?’ It was frustrating. I felt like I was in a hole because I couldn’t prove…”
Pyfer stops for a second, draws in a deep breath and exhales.
“I got the opportunity, and I f***** it up, and then when I got the second opportunity, that’s why I was screaming and angry. I’m a passionate dude; I’m a very intense person.”
The gruesome elbow injury suffered against Stoltzfus on Season 4 of Dana White’s Contender Series sidelined Pyfer for well over a year. He returned to the cage at the end of 2021, earning a second-round stoppage win under the Cage Fury FC banner, and then returned to Las Vegas the following summer, stopping Ozzy Diaz in the second round to claim his spot on the UFC roster.
