Be Joe Pyfer: Against All Odds

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Joe Pfeiffer has seen his star rise rapidly among the UFC ranks, but only after overcoming what seemed impossible odds.

A tough childhood resulted in Pfeiffer being homeless, and then his early fighting career seemed to come to an end when he suffered a catastrophic injury.

In this episode, Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips sits down with Pfeiffer to discuss his rocky and remarkable rise to UFC stardom.

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Saturday, July 26th, and this is a weekend edition of Morning Wire.

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I don't care what you did in your career the last five years.

What are you going to do tonight?

Be fired up to fight.

Try to finish the fight.

If you want to get into the UFC and this is where you want to be, be Joe Piper.

i knew what the goal was i knew where i wanted to be i never envisioned anything else other than getting to the ufc you're not really shocked by the moment when you're expecting it to come all right we're joined now by joe pfeiffer rising ufc middleweight star joe thanks for coming on oh thanks for having me man i'm excited so my brother and i love the contender series we love the ufc he put me on to you when he saw your first appearance on the contender series he said this guy's life sounds like a movie and now your life has been made into a movie a documentary at least tell us a little bit of your story your rise to the UFC and what exactly is in this documentary what people are going to see yeah so as far as the documentary there's a lot to talk about obviously but uh I started jiu-jitsu at four and a half years old um then I started boxing around seven years old and then I started wrestling in my high school years of

sophomore into my senior year and

And then started fighting right after high school, you know, so

yeah, I mean, I just had this trajectory, obviously, with starting a combat sports very early.

That this is what I wanted to do.

It was one of my dreams to get in UFC.

I wind up, I'm just giving you the short version, obviously, but I wind up getting, you know, my first contender series shot,

broke my elbow in a fight that I was winning.

And then I was out for almost two years.

They promised me a shot back.

I come back.

I'm ready to fight.

They say no, go get another win.

Wind up fighting a World Team Trials wrestler and wind up knocking him out.

Fought that fight with a broken left hand.

I come back.

They call me.

I just broke my ankle playing basketball.

And they say, hey, by the end of the summer, do you want to come back on

the contender series again for my second try?

And, you know, I said, absolutely, still in a boot and everything.

Wound up getting the second opportunity.

And then, you know, the whole beat Joe Pfeiffer statement.

I was the only one that got a finish that night, only when I got a contract.

And then obviously

it was a huge staple in my career so far to have Dana, you know, say, if you want to get into UFC and this is where you want to be, you know, act like Joe Pfeiffer and be Joe Pfeiffer.

So that's still present.

And then, you know, obviously I'm 5-1 in the UFC, cracking the top 15 very soon.

We had

people around the office wearing B.

Joe Pfeiffer shirts all week long once the documentary was announced.

It was very cool to see.

Americans, I've always loved an underdog story.

Your story is just an underdog story on steroids.

The adversity you've overcome.

And that's something that I I think people who've heard your story have really related to.

They want to cheer for you.

But for people who haven't heard that story, talk to us about where you were before you got into the UFC, when you had that second contender series fight, you scored that viral knockout.

Where were you just from a personal standpoint coming into that financially, mentally?

What was going on there?

Yeah, I mean, going into the second one,

One, I had to battle depression.

I had to battle,

I would say that was like my last stint of being a victim because I had struggled with like a little bit of suicide problems, things like that.

And I think I just was unappreciative of the journey that I was on.

And I think that's where you can become a victim and you can start to feel sorry for yourself, things like that.

I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

They told me when I first broke my elbow that I was done fighting.

I'd never fight again because if I threw a punch, the impact could literally dislocate my elbow.

And I had one surgery, right?

So it was two surgeries.

So that's why it took almost two years by the time I stepped foot back in the cage.

So I had broken, obviously, my elbow.

I got the first surgery.

My arm was stuck about 90 degrees.

And I remember showing my coach, like, hey, man, I'm going to get back.

You think, you know, and he was looking at me like wide-eyed, like, man, like, didn't want to discourage me, but I still had that hope, you know, I still had that fire, that desire to go out and still compete.

And

it wasn't feasible at that point.

So I went to another doctor and got a second opinion because when I went to the original doctor, he said he wasn't willing to do it, could make it worse.

And then I basically just probably slip my arm every time I extended it out of socket.

So I went and got a second opinion.

He said there was a 30% chance that I would have a success.

Good enough for you.

The second he said 30%, I literally cut him off and I was like, okay, when?

Let's do it.

And he scheduled me about four or five days later and we did the surgery again.

And they split me on the outside of my elbow and the inside of my elbow.

And I had a torn forearm still.

I still had, they cut the capsule around the forearm.

And then had to get out a whole lot of like bone growth.

So that was that process, right?

But basically I did a whole year of rehab for the first surgery.

Then I had to go and get a second surgery and do a whole another almost year of surgery.

I got cleared the week before I fought my return fight.

So I shouldn't even have fought.

And then I broke my left hand.

I broke my left thumb in half

and went into my return fight with that.

So the nerves, man.

I'm telling you this because the nerves for that fight were the worst I've ever had in any fight, you know, questioning why am I doing this and all these things.

And winning that fight really set me up to go on the contender the second time.

Now heading into the second contender,

I was a little bit in a better of a headspace.

I had a trip on my shoulder.

I was pissed off.

I didn't like the way that when I had lost my first contender fight, I didn't get to talk to Dana.

He had issued a statement saying that

you know, Joe just had a dislocation because it was very early at the time, but it was much deeper than that, right?

So I just felt like I didn't get a chance to say, hey, I'm sorry, or hey, thank you for the opportunity or anything like that.

It's just you're put in an ambulance and you're sent away and that's it.

You don't hear anything from any of the UFC people.

And it's like, this is what this is.

Everybody just forgets me.

I lost sponsorships, friends, all kinds of stuff.

Everybody kind of wrote me off.

So when I was going into that second contender series fight, I knew that that was like my last opportunity.

And I was fighting a guy from California who

fought for LFA.

I think he was a two-weight champion or he was an active middleweight champion, something like that.

All wins by knockouts.

And they were hyping him up to be somebody that was unbeatable, not unbeatable, but very highly talented prospect.

And I went in there and obviously I had the performance that I did.

I don't think it was anything special, but I think the aftermath was what was special, right?

Like I had all these odds against me.

I was still skinny.

I didn't fill out the middleweight body yet to be fighting there.

And I still beat him up and got him out of there and had a great knockout.

And, you know, was screaming at Dana White to give me my effing opportunity.

So I think that was the stigma of the B.

Joe Pfeiffer.

But yeah, all I can tell you is financially I was broke.

I was about to be homeless that Friday.

Tuesday night contender series are obviously on a Tuesday.

So

I had a really terrible friend that when we were all living together, he basically told me when I went out to corner one of my teammates.

While we were gone, they had showings of the house.

The house had sold.

So when I came back two weeks before my contender series fight, he said, you have to find a place to live because we're getting kicked out on this date because they sold the house.

So yeah, that Friday, I was going to be homeless.

And luckily, Dana White

and I won, I won the contract and Dana White wound up giving me some extra cash on the side to help me find a place and secure a place.

And I have to tell you, it was a blessing because, yeah, it was

some dark times, man.

Yeah.

And now you've jumped out five and one.

You're knocking on the middleweight rankings.

Yeah.

continuing to put on a show in the UFC.

People are going to be able to watch this documentary on Daily Wire.

What do you think they're going to to come away from it with?

What are they going to learn about you?

What are they going to feel when they watch it?

I think they're going to, a lot of people are going to be able to relate.

You know, I don't think what I went through is anything special aside from like the normal abuse case, but I started getting beat at a year old by my father who was abusive.

And not just to me, but my four sisters and my mother

until this day has never had an ounce of remorse or regret and completely denies it all.

But you have six people that are saying the same thing.

So that's always been crazy to me.

But you'll be able to relate to, you know, even if it's minor abuse or major abuse.

I was in sports, right?

So I got into sports and never stopped.

And that's what carried me through.

And I had some dark times and I had a lot of late maturing in my life because I didn't have very good parental guidance.

I ran away from home at 16 years old, but I still was doing this sport, right?

When I was, when my father and I had split and I had ran away, I still joined the wrestling team to stay active in combative sports.

I knew that I had to wrestle at some point because I wanted to be an MMA fighter.

So I constantly tried to put myself in front of the right people or the right sports or the right, you know, friends, people that were going to motivate me.

So I just, I kept asking for help, asking for help, asking for help and getting the right crew behind me.

So

it's a story of

hopefully, you know, inspiration because I never want to be anybody's role model.

I don't think I'm a good enough person to be a role model, but I do think that I can be an inspiration.

And I think I can be a voice for the voiceless children that don't know how to speak out against abuse.

And I'm not talking about getting your butt whooped here and there.

I'm talking about getting stomped and kicked and knives pulled out on you and things like that.

So that's true abuse.

You know, sometimes kids need ass whooping, my opinion.

And I'm thankful for the ass whoops that I did get that have helped me.

So there's some really valuable lessons in a butt whooping sometimes, but there's a big difference between discipline and abuse.

Yeah.

So, moving from the documentary to your recent career success, your last fight, you beat Kelvin Gasolum in a dominant fashion.

President Trump

was in front row.

The judges agreed.

President Trump was sitting front row.

You had a message for him in your victory speech.

Did you get a chance to connect with him at all afterwards?

What was that like having him front row?

Yeah, no, I didn't.

It was cool.

You know, I do very well with pressure.

So I, and I was in such a good headspace going into that fight.

I was happy.

I was excited.

I just, I wanted to compete, you know, and I had to be that way.

And it was, it took a lot to get there because, you know, you have the president there.

You have 20,000 people there.

It's your first main event, or not main event, but I was basically the co of

the co-main title fights and the main.

So going out there, you have to manage all that mentally.

But, you know, I was happy I was there.

I went out there and, you know, I got his attention.

And all I said was

USA, Mofo.

And he pointed pointed at me and gave me the thumbs up.

And

that was it.

But no, I did not connect with him afterwards.

Once I'm done a fight, man, I'm trying to get out of there.

So, but yeah, it was cool.

You know, how many, how many kids could say they went from, you know, a nobody to homeless to being able to say, hey, I fought in front of the president and the guy was able to say, you know, good luck and give you a thumbs up.

It's cool.

You know, it's a cool monumental moment for me.

Dana White's been teasing this idea, or President Trump has been teasing the idea.

Dana White has been going White House card, man.

A White House UFC fight on on July 4th next year.

Do you want to be on that card?

What do you think of the idea?

Me versus Bo Nickel on that card would be amazing.

I know he's going to say no.

He don't want that work, but I would love it.

I think it would be amazing.

You know, how cool would it be to, I've never been, right?

So I've never been there.

And I always walk out with the flag.

I think I'm one of the few fighters.

There's a handful.

You know, I don't think there's too many that we can name that walk out with our flag.

And I think more should.

I'm a true American, and I would love to represent my flag at the highest stage in front of the president and try to take somebody's head off.

Yeah, we don't have to get political, but it is interesting seeing a lot of sporting events.

You wouldn't expect President Trump to show up and get a standing ovation the way he does at virtually every pay-per-view he shows up to.

What do you think that says about the sport where President Trump is so welcomed there by the fans, by many of the fighters?

But you also have fighters speaking their minds on every side of the political aisle.

Talk to us about the UFC's willingness to let fighters speak their mind, whatever it is, and what is that environment like?

Well,

yeah, to not get political, right?

But I think you have to say a little bit like, we pride ourselves in freedom and we pride ourselves in freedom of speech.

And there's very few organizations, even at the highest level.

I'm not going to say names of sports, but they don't really honor that.

You know, it's freedom of speech with censorship, which is not freedom of speech.

So you should be allowed to talk about anything and everything.

That's what freedom of speech is.

Yeah, sure, you obviously have the consequences of certain things that you say.

You might get backlashed for.

But but if we're true Americans and we're true freedom, you know, and

then we should be allowed to say what we want.

And I think Dana White has done a phenomenal job with allowing us fighters to express ourselves.

You know, we're not the most eloquent speakers.

We're not the most educated people, but we aren't stupid.

We are smart, most of us.

And we should be allowed to speak our minds.

You know, this is an emotional sport when you have somebody trying to beat your face in to take away half of your money.

So, but I also think that's why Trump is super involved.

You know, it does stand for what's right, which is freedom of speech without censorship.

And I think that that is the epitome of UFC.

And obviously all the work that we put in, I think, deserves that attention.

I think we are finally reaching a stage where MMA is like becoming a worldwide sport.

Yeah.

Joe, thank you so much for your time.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you also for

coming in here, sharing your story, sharing your story in the documentary, as well as people we'll be able to watch on dailywire.com.

Really appreciate your time.

Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

That was Daily Wire senior editor Kevin Phillips speaking with UFC middleweight star Joe Pfeiffer.

And this has been a weekend edition of Hornywire.

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