Middleweight Bo Nickal said on October 15 that his scheduled fight with Joe Pyfer has been pulled from UFC 335 and will instead headline a UFC card in Cleveland in February 2027. Nickal made the comment while appearing at a campaign rally for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, according to Heavy.com, telling the crowd he had received word of the change shortly before taking the stage.
"It actually got moved to February, where I'm going to be main eventing in Cleveland," Nickal said, in comments also reported by EssentiallySports.
The fight was originally booked for UFC 335 on December 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. As of this writing, UFC's own event listing still shows Nickal against Pyfer on that card, with no public change to the date, venue or lineup. Neither the UFC nor Pyfer has issued an official statement confirming a move. EssentiallySports reported that Pyfer responded to Nickal's comments with pointed trash talk rather than a denial.
What is actually confirmed
Nickal's statement is the only public account of the change so far, and it came from the fighter himself at a political event rather than from the promotion. No specific date, arena or opponent-confirmation has been announced for the reported Cleveland card. Readers should treat the move as Nickal's claim until the UFC updates its own fight card or otherwise confirms it. This article will be updated if the promotion announces a change or if the December 12 fight proceeds as currently listed.
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