It appears a highly anticipated middleweight contest is moving from the final UFC numbered card of 2026 to a Fight Night main event in 2027.
During the UFC 332 broadcast earlier this month, the UFC announced that Joe Pyfer was scheduled to face Bo Nickal at UFC 335 — which takes place Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, on Thursday night while attending a political rally for Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, Nickal broke some news on stage about the fight being moved to a later date.
Bo Nickal Vs Joey Pyfer is off of #UFC335
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) October 16, 2026
They will now headline a UFC Cleveland event in February
Bo Nickal announced today pic.twitter.com/dp9Jo6FA9z
“First off, I got a call backstage. I do have some news which is pretty exciting,” Nickal said on stage. “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. …
“We’re going to go smash this dude and then go take the belt.”
Pyfer reacted to the video of the announcement and, more specifically, Nickal’s comments about his prediction for the fight on his Instagram stories.
‘Bro talking [about] ‘gonna go smash this dude,’“ Pyfer wrote. ”I will take your fake dreams away. Poor kid vs. rich kid.“
As of now, a specific date was not announced for the Fight Night event.
Pyfer enters the pivotal bout on four-fight win streak, including a knockout win over Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC Seattle in Februry. After suffering his first MMA loss to Reinier de Ridder, Nickal bounced back with back-to-back knockout wins — including a first-round finish of Kyle Daukaus at UFC White House.