Bo Nickal Confirms UFC 335 Fight With Joe Pyfer Is Postponed for a Main Event Spot

Bo Nickal vs. Joe Pyfer’s anticipated middleweight fight is no longer scheduled for UFC 335 on December 12 at T-Mobile Arena. According to Nickal himself, the UFC has postponed the fight to 2027, and the bout now has a new month and location.

The UFC middleweight recently joined American politician Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign, ‘RedHawks Rally,’ at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on October 15. There, he disclosed receiving a call from the UFC regarding a February event’s main event in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I got a call backstage, and I do have some news, which is pretty exciting,” Nickal said. “My boy right here mentioned my fight in December. It actually got moved to February, where I’m going to be main eventing in Cleveland.

“So, I’m sure I’m going to see a bunch of you guys there supporting. I appreciate you guys. We are gonna go smash this guy and then go take the belt.”    

The UFC has yet to make an official announcement about the fight. However, Bo Nickal’s declaration confirmed that the promotion would, in fact, return to Ohio next year, where he would fight against Pyfer in the main event.

Their bout was originally scheduled for 3 rounds of 5 minutes on the UFC 335 main card. But now, the duration of the bout would transform into a 25-minute, 5-round fight as they are expected to headline the event in Ohio.

Nickal’s announcement about the UFC’s Ohio return turned out to be more special because it would end the promotion’s more than decade-long wait to visit the US state.

The last time the UFC visited Cleveland, Ohio, was on September 10, 2016, when hometown hero Stipe Miocic defended his heavyweight title against Alistair Overeem via first-round knockout.

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As of now, neither the UFC nor the middleweight fighters have shared the reason behind this abrupt change. Plus, it remains unclear whether the UFC would promote a bout from the UFC 335 card to the main event or organize a new fight. 

However, this is not the first time the promotion has moved a fight from a numbered card and placed it in a Fight Night main event.

In 2021, Sean Strickland was set to face Uriah Hall in a three-round bout on the main card of UFC 265 on August 7. However, the UFC ended up moving the bout to a five-round headliner on July 31 instead without explaining the reason for that shift. 

The difference between the two situations is that Strickland’s fight was moved closer, while Nickal vs. Pyfer was delayed for a little over two months.

However, the way Bo Nickal made the announcement didn’t seem to sit well with Joe Pyfer, who has responded to him with a threatening message. 

Joe Pyfer sends a threat to Bo Nickal after fight moves to Cleveland 

Right after Bo Nickal vowed to “smash” Pyfer in Ohio, ‘Bodybagz’ posted the video on his Instagram. In the caption, Pyfer stated that Nickal was merely fabricating the dream that he was going to crush.

“Bro talking about gonna go smash this dude,” Pyfer wrote. “I will take your fake dreams away. Poor kid vs rich kid.”

Pyfer and Nickal’s animosity is definitely nothing new. Both middleweights have rarely missed opportunities to take shots at each other.

In 2025, Joe Pyfer was set to face Kelvin Gastelum on the UFC 315 main card. During media day, reporters asked him about fans calling him “fraud checked” following his loss to Jack Hermansson in 2024.

In response, Pyfer said he wasn’t “100%” during the fight and claimed that Bo Nickal was the only fighter who deserved the title after his TKO loss to Reinier de Ridder.

“If anybody got fraud checked, we can say it’s Bo Nickal,” Pyfer said. “He got finished on his first loss. I lost basically a split decision, three rounds to two. But yeah, I’m prepared for the KG of old.”

We could have seen both 185-pounders finally put their differences aside at UFC 335. However, we will have to wait a couple of months longer to witness Joe Pyfer vs. Bo Nickal at UFC Ohio 2027. Both fighters would collide in a main-event bout, which would draw more eyes to the matchup.

Nickal has never headlined a UFC event, but Joe Pyfer defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC Seattle this year. That experience could massively favor ‘Bodybagz’ when they finally meet. Still, Nickal’s wrestling threat would remain significant in their fight.

Now, it remains to be seen when the UFC will finally officially unveil the matchup.

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