Nigeria’s middleweight fighter Israel Adesanya early Sunday morning suffered a knockout defeat to Joe Pyfer.
Pyfer scored the biggest win of his career by finishing in two rounds at UFC Seattle.
Adesanya entered the fight on the worst run of his professional MMA career.
He shockingly dropped the UFC middleweight title to Sean Strickland in September 2023, before being submitted by Dricus du Plessis and brutally knocked out by Nassourdine Imavov.
And ‘The Last Stylebender’ came to fight in the main event of UFC Seattle, standing and banging with hard-hitter Pyfer for the majority of the bout.
However, after a few unsuccessful takedowns early in the fight, Pyfer took Adesanya’s back in round two, and he looked destined to get the win.
The American quickly flattened the former UFC middleweight champion and dropped multiple bombs before referee Herb Dean waved off the contest at the 4:18 mark.
Pyfer, 16-3, will now surge straight into the top four UFC middleweight rankings, with champion Khamzat Chimaev firmly in his sights.
Despite not having his arm raised since knocking out Alex Pereira in April 2023, two-time middleweight king Adesanya confirmed he would continue fighting when speaking after his loss.
Pyfer was overcome with emotions when he spoke to Daniel Cormier after his win.
“It’s like I could see this moment happening,” Pyfer said.
“I almost took my own life a couple of weeks ago, and I hate crying, so I’m going to stop.
“God restored me, that’s the only reason I’m here, USA, let’s go!”
He continued: “We knew I had the bigger firepower, so I knew I was going to keep that pressure.
“[Adesanya] is one of the highest IQ champions of all time. He’s the greatest middleweight of all time.”
Both men stood tall as Pyfer shot for a takedown in the first minute of round one, but the American failed to drag Adesanya to the canvas with his first attempt.
Pyfer quickly showed his rapid hands with a fast combination and caught Adesanya with a left hook before just missing a huge elbow.
It was clear ‘Bodybagz’ was gunning for an early KO as time ticked on and he tried another takedown to no avail.
Adesanya landed some nice calf kicks throughout the opening five minutes, which later left Pyfer uneasy on his lead leg.
But Pyfer eventually secured his first takedown in the final 20 seconds to seemingly take the round.
Earlier, Terrance McKinney of America had beaten Canadian Kyle Nelson with a first round technical knockout.
Nelson landed just one strike while Terrance landed 18 strikes and controlled the fight for 11 seconds securing the TKO 24 seconds into the fight.
