Kelvin Gastelum and Joe Pyfer didn’t get to fight at UFC Mexico. Now the middleweights try it all over again with the matchup rebooked for UFC 316 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on June 7.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Monday after Pyfer’s head coach John Marquez first revealed the new date on MMA Today.
The matchup was previously scrapped just hours before the March 29 event with Pyfer falling ill and unable to compete that night. Pyfer later unleashed a tirade aimed at Mexico while vowing to never fight there again after he got sick and it wiped out his matchup against Gastelum.
“I don’t care if it’s offensive to you, I will never go back to that country,” Pyfer said on his Instagram stories. “I did everything right: I slept in a tent, I did all this work to still get sick.
“Some people are saying it wasn’t the food, that I got altitude sickness. I’m not a f*cking geographic f*cking elevation f*cking scientists, but I was told as long as I acclimated — which I did for two months, slept in a tent on the f*cking floor — I did everything I could to prepare. And if that’s what altitude and elevation is, f*ck that country. I will never fight there again. Shit hole. Not going back.”
Pyfer won’t have to go back to Mexico; instead, he’ll enjoy New Jersey as part of the UFC’s return to the east coast in June.
The upcoming UFC 316 fight card is headlined by men’s bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili running it back with Sean O’Malley while Julianna Peña puts her women’s bantamweight title up for grabs against Kayla Harrison in the co-main event.
