The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday sets up at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for a second straight week, this time with a main card full of middleweight action. The UFC Fight Night 236 main event provides much of the intrigue. Joseph Pyfer has looked excellent every time out in his UFC run thus far, and he attempts to break into the Top 10 at 185 pounds with a win over Jack Hermansson. Beyond that, Gregory Rodrigues looks to test out his new and improved approach against Brad Tavares, while Armen Petrosyan faces Rodolfo Vieira in a classic striker-versus-grappler match. Even the clash between Ihor Potieria and Robert Bryczek should provide some violence. Meanwhile, Dan Ige collides with Andre Fili in what figures to be an engaging featherweight co-main event, and a potential lightweight banger pitting Michael Johnson against Darrius Flowers rounds out a decent six-fight slate.
Middleweights
#11 MW | Jack Hermansson (23-8, 10-6 UFC) vs. Joseph Pyfer (12-2, 3-0 UFC)ODDS: Pyfer (-245), Hermansson (+200)
Pyfer’s rise has been an interesting subplot over the last year and a half, and he looks to go from prospect to potential contender with his biggest win to date. Pyfer is a two-time alum of Dana White’s Contender Series, and the first time did not go particularly well. Before his fight really got out of the gates, Dustin Stoltzfus was able to slam Pyfer and wound up breaking his arm in the process. However, “Bodybagz” persevered and made a successful comeback on the regional scene a year and some change later, and a 2022 return trip to DWCS saw Pyfer finally earn a contract with a knockout victory. Since then, Pyfer’s rise has mostly just been notable for how clean it has been. He has a giant frame and knockout power, which he used to quickly dispatch Alen Amedovski and Gerald Meerschaert, and a victory over Abdul Razak Alhassan saw Pyfer pivot to an effective wrestling and grappling game for a second-round submission. Pyfer’s combination of poise and horsepower should continue to be a problem for the middleweight division writ large, and it will be interesting to see if it is enough for him to get over the hump into title contention this early in his UFC career. That is where Jack Hermansson comes in.
Hermansson has had an interesting go of it in the UFC for the last seven-plus years, cycling through a lot of ideas while perennially remaining just outside of contention. Hermansson initially came to the UFC as an awkward but effective striker before suddenly pivoting to a run as a ground-and-pound specialist in 2017. That emphasis on wrestling and grappling eventually paid off in 2019, when “The Joker” tapped David Branch in less than a minute, then took a quick turnaround against Ronaldo Souza to win the first UFC main event of his career. That proved to be the high-water mark of Hermansson’s UFC career thus far, at least in terms of momentum. He was stopped by Jared Cannonier to cap off the UFC’s debut in Copenhagen, Denmark, later in the year and has spent the last four years alternating wins and losses on the fringes of the middleweight title picture. There is a fairly clear through-line to Hermansson’s fights at this top level, where he tends to struggle with opponents who can offer some combination of strength and consistency. Cannonier and Roman Dolidze are tanks with knockout power, while Marvin Vettori and Sean Strickland just plugged away for five rounds and never let Hermansson take the momentum of the fight. In contrast, each of Hermansson’s high-profile wins have offered a leverage point where he can crack the fight open. Kelvin Gastelum’s lack of defensive awareness walked him into a submission; Edmen Shahbazyan has a suspect gas tank; and Chris Curtis was simply too small to make hay against Hermansson’s range game. Stylistically, Hermansson does appear to be running on all cylinders, pivoting back towards the striking approach that brought him to dance while still having his grappling in his back pocket. That should be enough to frustrate Pyfer's slow-moving pressure game for at least part of this fight. With that said, the fact that this is a five-round main event does raise some worries for both parties. Pyfer does have the type of physical gifts that have historically given Hermansson trouble, but it is also unclear how effective the American can be after about a round and a half of hard work. Tracking Hermansson down on the feet could be an issue for Pyfer, but the Alhassan win showed that he also seems willing to blast in for a takedown if he is not making hay as a striker; and that does seem to be an area where Pyfer can impose his physicality and start hunting for a finish. The pick is Pyfer via second-round submission.
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Hermansson vs. Pyfer
Ige vs. Fili
Bryczek vs. Potieria
Rodrigues vs. Tavares
Johnson vs. Flowers
Vieira vs. Petrosyan
The Prelims