MORRISTOWN, N.J. – Bo Nickal caught a stray during UFC 316 media day.
Despite not being on the card, Nickal's name surfaced unprompted by fellow UFC middleweight Joe Pyfer, who fights Kelvin Gastelum on the pay-per-view main card of UFC 316 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) this Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark. Pyfer said Nickal was "fraud checked" in his first professional loss last month against Reinier de Ridder.
Pyfer (13-3 MMA, 4-1 UFC) mentioned Nickal in reference to some people questioning his chances against Gastelum (20-9 MMA, 13-9 UFC) due to the nature of his first UFC defeat, which came last year vs. Jack Hermansson.
"I think a lot of people go off my Jack Hermanson fight, which is fine," Pyfer told MMA Junkie at UFC 316 media day. "But that was my first big show, my first big test, walked into it not 100 percent, I had some things going on. It wasn't my best performance, but I didn't get rocked. I didn't get dropped, I didn't get submitted, I didn't get fraud checked. Let's redefine what fraud checked is. If anyone got fraud checked, we can say it's Bo Nickal. He got finished in his first loss. I lost a split decision basically, three rounds to two."
Pyfer feels more than ready to defeat the best version of Gastelum for his second win in a row. He's confident he'll have an answer for everything Gastelum could offer.
"I trained for the Kelvin that fought Izzy, the guy that's going to be in your face, the guy that has the cardio to go hard 15 minutes, so I'm training for the best version of Kelvin," Pyfer said "I also thought in my personal opinion that KG has done his better work at 185. He's not going to be as sucked out at '70 obviously. I still think that there's a huge power difference between us. I think that there's a big skill difference between us as far as me being more complete."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joe Pyfer before UFC 316: Bo Nickal 'got fraud checked' in first loss
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