UFC 316 Fight Card Odds And Predictions: Gastelum Vs. Pyfer
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - MARCH 28: (L-R) Opponents Kelvin Gastelum and Joe Pyfer face off during the ... More UFC Fight Night ceremonial weigh-in at CDMX Arena on March 28, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
On Saturday, Kelvin Gastelum and Joe Pyfer meet in a matchup the UFC initially booked for the recent UFC Mexico City event. That fight fell through on the day of the event when Pyfer fell ill and was unable to compete. The two middleweights face off in Newark on the pay-per-view portion of the UFC 316 fight card.
We look at betting odds, line movement, preview, picks, and predictions for Gastelum vs. Pyfer, which takes place at Prudential Center. The UFC 316 PPV card streams on ESPN+ following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass.
The main event of UFC 316 finds UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili against the man he took the title from, Sean O'Malley. Meanwhile, in the fight card's co-main event, two-time women's bantamweight champ Julianna Pena looks to do what she could not in her first title run, make a successful defense of her crown. Pena faces former two-time PFL lightweight tournament winner Kayla Harrison.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - MARCH 28: Kelvin Gastelum poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night ... More ceremonial weigh-in at CDMX Arena on March 28, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Kelvin Gastelum (19-9-0-1) has been with the UFC since April 2013, when he won Season 17 of 'The Ultimate Fighter' with a split decision over Uriah Hall. The victory over Hall put Gastelum's professional record at 7-0.
Gastelum dropped to welterweight for his next UFC fight. He remained unbeaten through 2014, losing his first fight in January 2015 when Tyron Woodley defeated him via split decision.
Gastelum missed weight for the Woodley matchup, coming in at 180. It was not his first issue on the scale as a member of the UFC roster. He also came in heavy for his June 2014 win over Nico Musoke, weighing 172.75. Weight issues have plagued Gastelum throughout his UFC career, as he has struggled at times to make welterweight and middleweight.
Gastelum's career has been up and down since his loss to Woodley. Since that 2015 clash, his record stands at 8-8-0-1, and he has not won more than two fights in a row.
The 33-year-old is a very talented fighter, but his struggles to make weight and consistency issues inside the cage have hurt him. The high point of Gastelum's career is his 2019 interim UFC middleweight title fight opposite Israel Adesanya, a bout that recently enshrined the two men in the UFC Hall of Fame.
Gastelum has a 3-6 record dating back to April 2019, when he faced Adesanya. He is coming off a June 2024 unanimous decision win over Daniel Rodriguez.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - MARCH 28: Joe Pyfer poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night ceremonial ... More weigh-in at CDMX Arena on March 28, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Joe Pyfer (13-3) had a first go at gaining a UFC contract in 2020 at a Dana White Contender Series event. At the time, the 23-year-old was 7-1. His only career loss to that point was a second-round submission setback to Jhonoven Pati under the Ring of Combat banner. Pyfer lost the ROC middleweight championship in that outing. Pyfer faced Dustin Stoltzfus on that DWCS card.
Pyfer looked good in the early going of that matchup, walking down his foe and looking to land powerful strikes. With a bit over two minutes left in the first round, Pyfer scored an easy takedown on Stoltzfus, who calmly looked to set up a submission while Pyfer did his best to create openings to land heavy ground strikes. With the clock ticking down, Stoltzfus stood and went for a slam takedown. Pyfer landed with all his weight on his extended right arm, causing an injury that ended the fight.
Pyfer recovered from that injury, but he did not fight again until he earned a first-round knockout win over Austin Trotman on a Cage Fury fight card.
The UFC gave Pyfer a second opportunity to earn a contract in July 2022. Pyfer faced Ozzy Diaz on a DWCS card. Pyfer was a +100 betting underdog at that event.
Pyfer didn't mess around on the feet against Diaz. He scored a takedown inside the first minute and then worked for a submission until Diaz reversed Pyfer with two minutes left in the round. Diaz could not keep Pyfer on the mat, as Pyfer worked back to his feet, where he scored with low kicks and an effective jab.
In the second stanza, Pyfer pressured Diaz and then, showing off his power, ended the fight with a powerful left hook that put his opponent on his back.
In awarding Pyfer a UFC contract, UFC CEO Dana White said, "If you want to get into the UFC, and this is where you want to be, act like Joe Pyfer. Okay? Be Joe Pyfer. Be excited to be here. Be fired up to fight. Try to finish the fight. Try to win. Be Joe Pyfer, and you will get into the UFC."
Pyfer put together a 3-0 run under the UFC banner between September 2022 and October 2023, scoring three stoppages and two 'Performance of the Night' bonuses.
Seeing promise in Pyfer, the UFC booked him in a main event against veteran Jack Hermansson in February 2024. Pyfer was a favorite in that matchup, but he fell short, as Hermansson's veteran skills showed gaps in Pyfer's game.
Pyfer rebounded from that loss with a first-round knockout win over Marc-André Barriault at UFC 303.
When BetOnline published the opening odds for this matchup, Pyfer was a -300 favorite over Gastelum, who was listed at +250. Today, Pyfer has climbed to -355, while Gastelum is a +280 betting underdog.
Age: 33
Height: 5' 9'
Reach: 71.5'
Stance: Southpaw
Age: 28
Height: 6'1'
Reach: 75'
Stance: Orthodox
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JUNE 29: Joe Pyfer looks on after his victory in a middleweight fight against ... More Marc-Andre Barriault of Canada during the UFC 303 event at T-Mobile Arena on June 29, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Gastelum has one of the best chins in the business, and if Pyfer gets too aggressive and thinks he will be able to put his opponent away based on his power, things might get tricky for the younger fighter. Pyfer's best bet is not to chase the knockout here but to use his power to rack up damage while being sound defensively. The betting pick is for Joe Pyfer to beat Kelvin Gastelum by decision. However, for those who do not have faith in Pyfer's fight IQ, a Gastelum upset win via decision is a value betting pick to think about.
We will have more on the UFC 316 Gastelum vs. Pyfer bout as fight night nears, as well as live results, reactions, highlights and more for the UFC 316 pay-per-view card on fight night.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
UFC on ABC 8 takeaways: Is Khalil Rountree Jr. a threat to Magomed Ankalaev?
What mattered most at UFC on ABC 8 on Saturday at Crystal Palace Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan? Here are a few post-fight musings … 4. Those dreadful prelims The UFC's introduction to Baku was a rough one. The first six fights on the undercard were not to be remembered, with the closest thing to a finish being Ismail Naurdiev's illegal knee on JunYong Park that somehow didn't get him disqualified. The high points were few and far between, and almost nonexistent. The best fight was probably the flyweight bout in which Tagir Ulanbekov defeated Azat Maksum, and even that left a bit to be desired. It's not a set of prelims that will be spotlighted as the way for UFC to introduce itself to a new market. Unfortunately it wasn't redeemed much by the main card, either, with four of six fights also going to a decision, making for the 11th-longest card in UFC history in total fight time. 3. Myktybek Orolbai's impressive start Myktybek Orolbai name might be hard to spell and pronounce, but it is one to remember going forward in the lightweight division after he spoiled the octagon debut of 2019 RIZIN Grand Prix champion Tofiq Musayev courtesy of a nasty choke. Although he's just four fights into his promotional tenure, Orolbai (14-2-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) is building credibility as a much-watch name at 155 pounds. His fights are either wars or finishes, and that's exactly the mold as the most lovable names in divisional history. He might present an older physical image, but Orolbai is still just 27 and evolving training out of a great gym at American Top Team. For now, it feels like he is one who could be a great action fighter for years to come, and perhaps eventually more. 2. Rafael Fiziev bounces back Rafael Fiziev sent a reminder that he is still a viable top-level lightweight when he outworked surging contender Ignacio Bahamondes for a unanimous decision. After losing three consecutive fights against Justin Gaethje (twice) and Mateusz Gamrot, the situation on paper seemed dire for Fiziev (13-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) coming in. If he had lost to Bahamondes, it would've felt like a definitive ceiling for him. Instead, he came through as an underdog and put himself back into a prominent position. Although he downplayed it, the pressure on Fiziev between the losing skid and fighting in his native Azerbaijan was immense. Instead of folding to it, he came through with a performance that said a lot about his fighting character. 1. Khalil Rountree Jr. is a valid contender After a title shot against then-champion Alex Pereira in October that was largely the product of circumstance, many questioned whether Khalil Rountree Jr. truly belongs at the top of the light heavyweight division or if his valiant performance in defeat against "Poatan" was a one-off. Rountree (14-6 MMA, 10-6 UFC) silenced those with a negative perspective when he broke down and defeated former champion Jamahal Hill by unanimous decision for what not becomes the biggest victory of his career. If someone, as Hill did, chooses to largely stand in front of Rountree for the majority of a fight, then they are likely to get battered with his dangerous array of strikes. The upper tier of the 205-pound division has plenty of names who fancy themselves strikers, so this a good spot for Rountree to be. The biggest question, however, is whether he can find the consistency to get back to the top. The fights aren't going to get much easier from here, and if Magomed Ankalaev continues to hold the belt, that is not a very style-friendly matchup for him. Rountree is in a promising spot and after a long career in the octagon seems to be experiencing his high point. Whether it comes together in the form of a title shot or title win remain to be seen, but after so many years of being up and down, he's already done more than most expected of him.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Jon Jones' UFC retirement leaves a complicated legacy — and the final chapter will always be a part of it
'Jon Jones called us last night and retired.' That's how it ended, according to UFC CEO Dana White. The man who would be GOAT called it a career via late-night phone call some seven months after his first UFC heavyweight title defense. So he claims, anyway. Advertisement In between the last trip into the cage and the final phone call there was a lot of time-wasting and truth-bending, with the result being … this. A laughably anticlimactic end to a great though troubled career. (Immediately after which, we'd discover he has yet another case pending back home in Albuquerque. But more on that later.) All of it makes you wonder, if we were going to just do this in the end, couldn't we have done it half a year ago? It also raises the question: How much will this messy, frustrating final chapter shape Jones' overall legacy as an MMA and UFC great? Jones was never going to fight interim champ Tom Aspinall. That ought to be clear by now. In all his many public statements, by which I mostly mean tweet responses to internet randos who called him out for ducking the fight, the one thing Jones never said was that he had definite plans to beat up big Tom at some point in the future. Sometimes he said maybe. Plenty of times he came right out and said no. He claimed that Aspinall just didn't excite him enough, and said it was pointless because if he beat him then there'd just be another guy after that. Advertisement (A couple things about that claim: 1. That is basically what it means to be champion. Challengers keep stepping up and you are expected to fight them. That's how it works. That's how it has always worked. 2. Look around at the UFC's heavyweight division right now. Does it seem like the big problem is the abundance of interesting contenders? This was the big one, man. The only heavyweight money fight out there.) Refusing to accept what is essentially the most interesting challenge Jones has faced in at least five years, it's not a great look. Making us all wait until we're sick of even talking about it before finally admitting that he wasn't up for it is plain dumb. It's what you would do if you were a pro-wrestling heel trying to turn the audience against you. And while Jones seems to enjoy a good troll job, it's hard for me to believe that his master plan all along was to make himself hated by fans on his way out the door of this sport. Advertisement Jones cares about legacy. He cares a lot, even if he doesn't always want to admit it. It's why he insisted on fighting Stipe Miocic in his first and only heavyweight title defense. He wanted to add Miocic's name to his résumé so he could say he beat the best in two weight classes. He was just hoping we wouldn't notice that the version of Miocic he beat was on the wrong side of 40 and mostly retired already. That's the other thing about how Jones views legacy, though. He's always seemed to think that it was up to him to decide what we thought of him. Because that's all legacy is, at the end of the day. It's what the majority of the people tell each other about who you were and what you did. Jones has, from the very beginning of his career, looked at it as a public relations challenge he could shape at his whim. It's why he tried to portray himself as the polite, humble choir boy at first. That didn't hold up long. He crashed too many cars and showed up on too many police bodycams for that image to endure even the slightest scrutiny. Later he rebranded as the reformed bad boy who had grown through suffering, becoming a better person after all the trials and tribulations (that he put himself through). The fact that his retirement announcement was immediately overshadowed by news of yet another charge for vehicular misbehavior, this one involving an intoxicated woman found "lacking clothing from the waist down" in a crashed car that she said Jones was driving before he ran off and left her there? Well, it doesn't exactly scream: Here's a guy who's learned his lesson. Jon Jones with his longtime fiancée Jessie Moses after his victory over Stipe Miocic. (KENA BETANCUR via Getty Images) Jones wants to tell us who he is and how we should view his time in this sport. But that decision isn't up to him. Fans can be forgiving with the benefit of time, but they also have long memories for things like disappointment and anger. Jones has disappointed them plenty, both in and out of the cage. He's also thrilled them at times, showing them what it would look like if one fighter were miles ahead of the pack. Advertisement The single most consistent part of Jones' story was that he always remained the greatest threat to his own ambitions and the only limit on his own ability. No one could stop him in the cage. Outside of it, he couldn't stop himself from lighting it all on fire, then begging for mercy and swearing to be better from now on, then doing it again. He was our spoiled genius, a petulant boy king who kept threatening to finally grow up but never really did. He also might have been the greatest fighter this sport has ever known, but he couldn't ever stay focused on that goal long enough to keep showing up in ways that would have removed all doubt. That, along with everything else, will be one of the things we'll have to say when we look back on Jones' career. He could have done more. He probably should have done more. He lost or squandered years of his prime, then rode off into the Thai sunset on the back of a moped when faced with the (literally) biggest challenge available. That page, too, gets stapled onto his permanent record whether he likes it or not. He was our spoiled genius, a petulant boy king who kept threatening to finally grow up but never really did. Is this really the last we see of Jones in the UFC? I kind of doubt it. I think once he sees how quickly the sport and the heavyweight division moves on without him — and once he sees what life is like as a former UFC champ — he'll want back in. I'd be surprised if, by this time next year, he's still as retired as he claims. Advertisement But if it is the end, his legacy won't be a simple one. And it won't be one that he alone gets to dictate. Jones' story is about greatness, but it's also about the price of it. Here was a man who was so good and gifted at this one specific thing that he almost couldn't help but take it for granted. He treated his peerless career like it was a toy he could dangle out the window of a moving car, just for the thrill of seeing how close he could come to losing it entirely. We watched in awe of the fighter, then shook our heads in weary dismay at the man. We end (or so we're told) by repeating that pattern. There goes Jon Jones, maybe the greatest of all time. But also maybe not. We're sad to see him go with business left unfinished. But also maybe we're not.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oscar-Winning Heartthrob, 61, Looks 'Insanely Fine' With Latest Hair Change-Up
Oscar-Winning Heartthrob, 61, Looks 'Insanely Fine' With Latest Hair Change-Up originally appeared on Parade. sent fans into a frenzy with his latest red carpet appearance. The heartthrob actor, 61, posed for the cameras at the photocall for his new film F1: The Movie on Monday night, where he reminded fans just how well he's been pulling off his new buzz cut hairstyle. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 While attending the June 9 premiere at the Sofitel Reforma in Mexico City, Pitt walked the red carpet in a salmon-colored pink suit while rocking the sleek buzz cut that he debuted just last month. The Oscar winner added to his stylish look with a light blue undershirt that peeked out of his suit, plus a pair of trendy suede shoes. Since kicking off his press tour for the new F1 film, fans on social media have been fawning over the actor's good looks, including several TikTok users who say Pitt looks "radiant" with his new short hairstyle. "He's insanely fine," one fan wrote in response to footage posted on the video-sharing platform this week, while another user called the Wolfs star "insanely fine." "His smile melts me everytime," another user wrote in the comments. One fan compared Pitt's aging process to "fine whiskey," while another person in the comments called him "the most charming man." F1: The Movie hits theaters nationwide on Friday, June 27, Heartthrob, 61, Looks 'Insanely Fine' With Latest Hair Change-Up first appeared on Parade on Jun 10, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
