Following his victory over Israel Adesanya at the UFC presser, Joe Pyfer opened up at length about his faith and what led him to fully embrace Christianity.
During the press conference, Pyfer spoke about a period of personal turmoil that preceded his spiritual turning point. He said, “I was a vic tim of my own self-destruction. I had lust issues. I had just this toxic cycle of coping.”
“I had a dream where I was disgusted about who I was,” Pyfer continued. “I broke a lot of people’s hearts around me, and particularly one person that I never will hurt again. I feel like God chose me and took my hand and gave me a restored life, a renewed life.”
That renewed sense of purpose, he said, carried him through match week in a way he had never experienced before.
“I prayed probably 50 times this week and I was the most calm, happy, peaceful, appreciative person I’ve ever been in my life,” he said. “God is real, Jesus is real, and there are certain ways that you’re called to live, and those are the ways that I followed, and through my prayer I was granted this victory.”
Inside the cage, Pyfer described feeling something he struggled to put into words.
“I just felt like I had a warm blanket over me, man,” he said. “I just felt like God’s presence is what guided me to the victory.”
When asked what advice he would offer to others going through their own dark periods, Pyfer pointed directly to the Bible and community.
“Give yourself the opportunity to read the Bible and ask questions about each book,” he said. “I have the audiobook and I’ve been listening to it for six plus months. I write down questions from each book or things I don’t understand. Surround yourself with people that want to be better is the first thing, and then give yourself an opportunity on your faith.”
Pyfer also reflected on his previous relationship with religion, acknowledging that he had long considered himself a Christian in name only.
“I would say I was a believer. I was a Christian, but I was lukewarm with it. I’m a believer, I’m a Christian, but I’m out there and I’m messing with women or I’m doing this or I’m doing that. That’s just not godly.”
He pushed back firmly against the idea that a faith-based life is a restrictive one.
“We are not just here to be good people, live, and then there’s eternal darkness. It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said. “There is no downside to living by Christian morals. If you don’t respect that, that’s fine. But give yourself the opportunity for true freedom.”
