Israel Adesanya will take center stage in the Emerald City.The former middleweight champion will take on Joe Pyfer in the UFC Seattle main event on March 28. UFC CEO Dana White announced the booking on Tuesday. UFC Fight Night 271 takes place at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington and also features a women’s flyweight scrap pitting Alexa Grasso against Rose Namajunas. The card airs on Paramount+.
Adesanya has lost four of his last five Octagon appearances dating back to November 2022. In his only appearance of 2025, “The Last Stylebender” suffered a technical knockout defeat to Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Saudi Arabia second-round headliner last February. Adesanya captured 185-pound gold in October 2019 and put together five successful title defenses before ceding the belt to kickboxing rival Alex Pereira at UFC 281.
Pyfer is a two-time competitor on Dana White’s Contender Series and has gone 6-1 in the promotion since earning a UFC contract in 2022. After suffering his only career Octagon loss to Jack Hermansson in the main event of UFC Fight Night 236, ‘Bodybagz’ has rebounded to post back-to-back victories against Marc-Andre Barriault, Kelvin Gastelum and Abusupiyan Magomedov.
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