Adesanya has lost three straight fights. | Getty/UFC
Israel
Adesanya will take center stage in the Emerald City.
The former middleweight champion will face 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 the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle,
Washington and also features a women’s flyweight scrap pitting
Alexa
Grasso against Rose
Namajunas. The card will air on Paramount+.
Adesanya has lost four of his last five Octagon appearances dating
back to November 2022. In his lone appearance of 2025, “The Last
Stylebender” suffered a second-round technical knockout defeat to
Nassourdine
Imavov in the UFC Saudi Arabia headliner last February.
Adesanya captured 185-pound gold in October 2019 and authored five
successful title defenses before relinquishing the belt to
kickboxing rival Alex
Pereira at UFC 281.
A two-time competitor on
Dana White’s Contender Series, Pyfer has gone 6-1 in the
promotion since earning a UFC contract in 2022. After suffering his
lone career Octagon defeat to Jack
Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 236 main event, “Bodybagz”
has rebounded to post successive triumphs against Marc-Andre
Barriault, Kelvin
Gastelum and Abusupiyan
Magomedov.