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Nigeria’s middleweight fighter Israel Adesanya suffered a knockout defeat to Joe Pyfer early Sunday morning.
Pyfer earned the biggest win of his career by finishing in two rounds at UFC Seattle.
Adesanya entered the fight at the worst time 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, hanging on and banging with the strong Pyfer for the majority of the bout.
However, after some unsuccessful takedowns early in the fight, Pyfer took Adesanya’s back in the second round and looked set to get the win.
The American quickly knocked out the former UFC middleweight champion and threw numerous bombs before referee Herb Dean stopped the contest at 4:18.
Pyfer, 16-3, will now move straight into the top four UFC middleweight rankings, with champion Khamzat Chimaev firmly in his sights.
Despite not having raised his arm since knocking out Alex Pereira in April 2023, two-time middleweight king Adesanya confirmed he would continue to fight by speaking out following his defeat.
Pyfer was overcome with emotion when he spoke to Daniel Cormier after his win.
“It’s like I can 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 we had the most firepower, so I knew I was going to keep that pressure going.
“[Adesanya] he is one of the champions with the highest IQ of all time. He is the greatest middleweight of all time.
Both men rose to their feet as Pyfer shot for a takedown in the first minute of the first round, but the American failed to drag Adesanya to the canvas on his first attempt.
Pyfer quickly showed off his quick hands with a quick combination and caught Adesanya with a left hook before narrowly missing a huge elbow.
It was clear that “Bodybagz” was going for an early KO as the clock ticked down and he tried another takedown to no avail.
Adesanya landed some nice calf kicks during the first five minutes, which later left Pyfer uncomfortable on his front leg.
But Pyfer ultimately secured his first takedown in the final 20 seconds to seemingly advance to the round.
Earlier, American Terrance McKinney beat 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 to secure the TKO 24 seconds into the fight.
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