Jack Hermansson proved his doubters wrong after defeating Joe Pyfer in the main event of UFC Vegas 86 on Saturday night.
After dropping the first two rounds, Hermansson weathered the early onslaught from Pyfer and grew into the contest, taking the third, fourth and fifth round to secure the victory.
Speaking to the media post-fight, Hermansson admitted that he was happy to get the win but there are several things he will need to work on moving forward.
“There's different things that I'm very happy with the win, which is the most important thing, of course. But there is a lot of mistakes done in this in this fight that I need to fix on. You know, being in the sport is a constant learning process. And I learned a lot and my fighters said this fight is about a hit without getting hit.
“But I did. I got hit a couple of times there and especially the first two rounds. So one punch from Joe can be one too many tonight. I fought through that and ended up on top, but yeah, it's dangerous to get hit in there, so I will continue to work on my defense and a lot of other stuff I need to watch the fight again and then we're going to start to pick on different things apart.”
Heading into the contest, a lot of the hype was surrounding Pfyer and whether the surging prospect would be be able to continue his impressive run with the UFC against a tough opponent. The Swedishman was more than aware of push Pyfer was receiving and was determined to prove his own worth in the fight.
"Yeah, I felt that, you know, like he didn't even have a ranking. I feel like he got more exposure than I did for this fight. But I understand why, you know, he has an amazing story he's coming up through the contenders is and he has a lot of eyes on him and he should get the shot like this.
“But then you also need to perform to be able to take it to the next level. And I was not going to be that steppingstone.”
Moving forward, Hermansson dreams of being able to compete in Norway and is willing to do any work he has to in order to help with the legalization of MMA in the country. He said
“Well before boxing was illegal as well as boxing is now legal.
“So we can do boxing in Norway. And I think, yeah, it's, it's time to get MMA legalized as well. Before I'm done with this sport, I'm going to fight in Olso,I have to fight in Oslo. It would be amazing to bring the sport to Norway. So but I'm going to I'm going to need some help from all you guys in the media and the UFC and all the fans back home in Norway.
“We need to put some pressure on the politicians and show everybody that we really want this. You know, we love the sport and yeah, I think we should decide for ourself if we want to enjoy to watch and to train and to compete in MMA. So let's legalize MMA in Norway And in the meantime, I would love to go back to my birth country, Sweden, and fight there.”
