Bo Nickal’s fight with Joe Pyfer won’t happen at UFC 335 in December. Nickal announced this week that the middleweight bout has been pushed to February, and it’s moving up the bill as it goes. According to posts from Spinnin Backfist and Championship Rounds relaying Nickal’s announcement, the two will now headline a UFC event in Cleveland. Bloody Elbow also passed along the news on X, describing the fight as postponed until February.
No reason for the move has surfaced in the reports so far. Pyfer did respond publicly after Nickal’s announcement, per Spinnin Backfist, but the substance of that response wasn’t spelled out in the post, so treat any read on his mood as guesswork for now.
The matchup was one of a small handful of fights expected to stir up a 185-pound division that has gone strangely still. As MMA Fighting laid out on Wednesday, the top of the weight class is effectively frozen until Sean Strickland’s public grievances with the UFC over his pay get settled. Strickland handed Khamzat Chimaev the first loss of his career in Chimaev’s first title defense at UFC 328 in May. Chimaev wants the rematch. Strickland looks more likely to face top contender Nassourdine Imavov, assuming he fights at all.
View post on X
Around that logjam, contenders are trying to make noise. Brendan Allen submitted Christian Leroy Duncan in the fifth round at UFC Vegas 122 for his fourth straight win and is angling for Dricus du Plessis. Robert Whittaker, now settled at light heavyweight, floated Allen against Chimaev on his MMArcade Podcast instead. Caio Borralho meets Yousri Belgaroui at UFC 334. Nickal and Pyfer were supposed to be the next domino after that, in December. Now they’re the February one.
View post on X
Pyfer, for his part, has been paying close attention to the title picture. Speaking with Tim Welch, he took a shot at Imavov’s recent run-in with Strickland and the way Imavov has been trailing him around. Pyfer said he understood the promotional instinct, then added: “He’s trying to sell it, but it’s like, brother, he’s not afraid of you. He already beat you.” That’s a man who has clearly thought about where he wants to stand when the division thaws.
My quick take: the delay costs these two almost nothing, and the Cleveland slot might be the better deal. With the belt tied up in a contract dispute and a rematch queue, nobody at middleweight is getting a title shot in December anyway. A February main event puts Nickal and Pyfer alone at the top of a poster instead of buried somewhere on a crowded pay-per-view, and whoever wins walks out of Cleveland with the most recent headline win in a division waiting on Strickland’s phone to ring.
View post on X
