Bo Nickal says Joe Pyfer fight moves from UFC 335 to a February Cleveland main event

Bo Nickal says his middleweight fight with Joe Pyfer is off UFC 335 on Dec. 12. He told a Thursday rally for Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, at Miami University in Oxford, that the bout has moved to February. He said he will headline a card in Cleveland. Heavy reported his remarks on Thursday night, from a video posted on X by Championship Rounds.

This is Nickal's word, not the UFC's. As of Friday, the UFC 335 page still lists Pyfer vs. Nickal on the Las Vegas main card. The promotion hasn't announced a Cleveland event, date or venue, and Nickal gave no reason for the change, MiddleEasy noted.

According to BJPenn.com's transcription, Nickal told the crowd:

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

He added that "we're gonna go smash this dude and then go take the belt." Pyfer answered on Instagram, in a post quoted by EssentiallySports: "Bro talking about gonna go smash this dude. I will take your fake dreams away. Poor kid vs rich kid." His post didn't confirm or deny the move.

What the move would change

The UFC announced the fight on Oct. 3 during the UFC 332 broadcast, as a three-round bout on the UFC 335 main card, Heavy reported. If Nickal's account holds, he gives up that spot for his first UFC main event. His one loss, to Reinier de Ridder in May 2025, came in the co-main event in Des Moines. UFC main events usually run five rounds, but no round count has been announced.

Pyfer is 16-3, 7-1 in the UFC, and has won four straight, most recently a second-round TKO of Israel Adesanya in Seattle on March 28 (our Pyfer page). He is No. 6 in the UFC's middleweight rankings. Nickal, No. 14, is 9-1 and has knocked out Rodolfo Vieira and Kyle Daukaus since the de Ridder loss (our Nickal page).

Nickal has been favoured in all seven UFC fights, yet backing him every time would have roughly broken even, down 0.04 units. The big miss was de Ridder: he closed at -370, a 76% chance, and was stopped in the second round. Pyfer is up 1.37 units in six priced UFC fights, and his only priced turn as an underdog was the Adesanya win at +114 (44%).

No US sportsbook has priced the matchup yet, according to our fight page.

We think the possible extra two rounds matter more than the city. Nickal has never been booked for five rounds, and only two of his UFC fights reached a third. Pyfer's only five-round UFC fight was his February 2024 main event against Jack Hermansson. He lost a unanimous decision, 48-47 on all three cards, his only UFC defeat.

Cleveland has hosted the UFC once, at UFC 203 in September 2016. That night, Cleveland's own Stipe Miocic defended his heavyweight title with a first-round knockout of Alistair Overeem in front of 18,875 fans. UFC 335 stays on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas, with Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes for the BMF title still at the top of the card.