Joe Pyfer sent former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya back to the drawing board in Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night headliner in Seattle, stopping Adesanya at 4:18 of the second round to cap the night.
Before the TKO finish, both fighters exchanged their best punches in a stand-up battle until a Pyfer takedown signaled the beginning of the end.
“I just have this mentality where I don’t care, I’m going to search and destroy,” the 29-year-old Pyfer (16-3 MMA) said following the stoppage, securing the finish in top control.
Adesanya, 36, hasn’t won a bout since regaining middleweight gold in April 2023 at UFC 287, and confirmed he has no plans to retire.
“I’m just going to keep going and going and going,” said Adesanya (24-6), a native of Nigeria.
A rematch five years in the making commenced at flyweight as former champion Alexa Grasso made short work of Maycee Barber with a TKO stoppage at 2:42 of the opening round. The Mexican used a left hook to down Barber before jumping on top of her immediately as the referee stepped in.
The two first met in February 2021, with Grasso earning a decision. Grasso (17-5-1) snapped a two-fight losing skid, whereas Barber (15-3) had not lost since the first meeting with Grasso, having won her previous seven fights.
In his final MMA fight, welterweight Michael Chiesa (20-7) had a hometown send-off as he submitted Niko Price (16-11) with a first-round rear-naked choke. Chiesa needed just 63 seconds to put a bow on his UFC career, one that spanned a decade-plus and included winning the 15th season of The Ultimate Fighter in June 2012.
Chiesa ended his UFC career at 15-7, while Price, who has been in the promotion for over a decade himself, now sits at 8-11, with two no contests in the Octagon and has dropped four straight fights.
The finishes were a theme on the night, as featherweight Lerryan Douglas (14-5) of Brazil needed 3:33 of the opening round to deliver a devastating TKO against Julian Erosa (31-13). Douglas has now won his last six in a row while Erosa continues to struggle at 9-9 in the UFC.
At middleweight, Yousri Belgaroui of the Netherlands scored a third-round TKO stoppage against Mansur Abdul-Malik by landing a perfectly timed knee to end the fight in a back-and-forth battle. Belgaroui (10-3 MMA) has won five straight and remains undefeated in the UFC. Conversely, it was Abdul-Malik’s (9-1-1 MMA) first professional loss, as he had won seven of his 11 outings by KO/TKO.
The main card got underway in emphatic fashion in the opener, with lightweight Terrance McKinney needing just 24 seconds to dispatch Canadian Kyle Nelson with a series of punches following a head kick. McKinney (18-8) has won three of his last four, while Nelson (17-7-1) has lost two of his last three.
–Field Level Media
