{"id":897346,"date":"2026-09-19T04:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897346\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T04:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:44:11","slug":"pyfer-stops-rockhold-via-tech-fall-at-raf-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897346\/","title":{"rendered":"Pyfer Stops Rockhold Via Tech Fall At RAF 13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Pyfer tech-falled Luke Rockhold in the second round at RAF 13 on Friday night in Miami, stopping the former UFC <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/division\/middleweight\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">middleweight<\/a> champion 13-3.<\/p>\n<p>Pyfer, currently ranked in the top 15 of the UFC&#8217;s middleweight division and coming off a knockout win over <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/fighter\/israel-adesanya\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Israel Adesanya<\/a>, dominated from the opening tie-up. He scored a quick bodylock takedown and repeatedly forced the blond-haired Rockhold out of bounds. Rockhold managed just three points across two rounds, unable to close distance or establish any offensive rhythm. Per MMA Fighting&#8217;s live coverage, Pyfer&#8217;s superior footwork and physicality proved decisive throughout.<\/p>\n<p>Pyfer Presses Finish After Early Lead<\/p>\n<p>Rockhold attempted his first real shot midway through the second round, but Pyfer countered with a whizzer and tossed him for a takedown and back exposure to go up 9-2. Sensing the finish, Pyfer rushed forward for another pushout and closed the match at 13-3, short of the six-minute mark.<\/p>\n<p>Rockhold, who stopped wrestling after high school and made his RAF debut in January with a tech fall loss to Colby Covington, looked visibly out of his depth against the younger fighter. Pyfer&#8217;s win marks his second straight victory over a former UFC champion in combat sports competition. Both fighters transitioned from high school wrestling to MMA before Rockhold retired from mixed martial arts in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sources-heading\">Reported via:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/raf-wrestling\/510924\/raf-13-live-blog-luke-rockhold-vs-joe-pyfer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Fighting<\/a> \u2014 RAF 13 live blog: Luke Rockhold vs. Joe Pyfer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Pyfer tech-falled Luke Rockhold in the second round at RAF 13 on Friday night in Miami, stopping&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-897346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}