Joe Pyfer blames last-second UFC Mexico City exit on travel: ‘Never again’

Joe Pyfer is out of his UFC Mexico City fight, and now he’s given fans a hint as to why that’s the case.

Pyfer was set to meet former interim middleweight title challenger Kelvin Gastelum in the Saturday night card’s co-main event. Just hours before the start of the card, the UFC announced he would not be competing due to an “illness.”

Soon after, Pyfer took to Instagram, where he claimed the illness was caused by his travel outside the United States in some way.

Joe Pyfer explains UFC Mexico City withdrawal

“Just wanna say my heart is broken I couldn’t fight today,” he wrote. “I got super sick and hopefully we can reschedule this fight for a few weeks from now. Unfortunately, comes with the territory of traveling outside of the states. Never again. My apologies guys. We’ll be back.”

While Pyfer didn’t go into specifics, it seems as though he’ll be reluctant to travel outside the US for his future fights. That may work for Joe Rogan, but it may be tough for Pyfer. He could limit himself to fights on American soil, but the champion of his division, Dricus Du Plessis, is from South Africa, and often fights internationally. Other top middleweights like Khamzat Chimaev, Nassourdine Imavov, Robert Whittaker, and Israel Adesanya usually do the same. Eventually, Pyfer may be called upon to jump on a plane to fight one of the division’s top dogs.

Regardless, it’s a shame he’s out of tonight’s event. He is not currently ranked, but recently rebounded from a tough decision loss to Jack Hermansson with a big knockout of Marc Andre-Barriault. If he beat Gastelum, he might have gotten a date with a ranked opponent. From there, fights with guys like Whittaker and Adesanya would only be a few wins away.

UFC Mexico City will be headlined by a fight between top flyweight contenders Brandon Moreno and Steve Erceg.