Joe
Pyfer put Israel Adesanya away with ground-and-pound at UFC
Seattle. | Getty/UFC
Joe
Pyfer rose to the
UFC through
Dana White’s Contender Series, earning a contract in his second
appearance after suffering an elbow injury in his initial outing.
That prompted the UFC CEO to urge other UFC hopefuls to “Be
Joe Pyfer.”
After defeating Israel
Adesanya via second-round technical knockout in the
UFC Seattle headliner this past Saturday, Pyfer has designs on
changing the perception of what the actually means.
“I’m in a really good spot mentally,” Pyfer said at Saturday’s
post-fight press conference. “The ‘Be Joe Pyfer,’ who I was as a
person is dead, but the ‘Be Joe Pyfer,’ thing will live on in a
much greater way now, where people can be inspired by it, and it
actually means something. So, I’m proud of who I am now. …
“So, yeah, ‘Be Joe Pyfer’ will still be a thing, it’s just got a
different meaning now.”
Leading up to UFC Seattle, Pyfer
credited his newfound faith and his longtime girlfriend for
bringout about a change in his overall philosophy. However, a more
startling revelation occurred in the moments after his triumph over
Adesanya, when Pyfer revealed that he nearly took his own life a
couple weeks prior to the fight.
Pyfer went into a little more detail when explaining the meaning
behind those remarks at the UFC Seattle presser.
“I said it all week, and I think a lot of people kind of dismissed
it as I wasn’t going to be able to go in there and still have this
tenacity about me or this mean streak about me. I was born a
fighter. I was born into chaos and a messed-up family, as many
children are. It’s not like mine’s super special compared to
anybody else’s,” Pyfer said.
“But yeah, I was a victim of my own self-destruction. I had lust
issues; I had just this toxic cycle of coping. Nothing drug-related
or anything like that, but I had a dream where I was disgusted
about who I was, I broke a lot of people’s hearts around me,
particularly one person that I never will hurt again, and s—t, I
was just disgusted with myself.
“So, I went and got therapy. In this dream, I feel like God chose
me and took my hand, gave me a restored life, a renewed life. The
only thing I can say is I feel like all the pressure of the world
is gone, all the expectations of the world [are] gone, and I feel
like a true, free person.”
Change is Possible
As a result, Pyfer felt like a new man during fight week. That
allowed him to “Be Joe Pyfer” — just in a different way.
“This whole week has been beautiful with my team, the support, and
my coaches,” he said. “It’s just showing them that you can change,
and you can be a better man, and God is real. Jesus is real. There
are certain ways you are called to live, and those are the ways
that I’ve followed and through my prayer, I was granted this
victory. Because let me tell you: I’ve prayed probably 50 times
this week. I was the most calm, happy, peaceful, appreciative
person I’ve ever been in my life.”