The main event is where Jack Hermansson wants to be.
The UFC Middleweight contender made his way back to the Octagon last weekend, taking on Joe Pyfer to close out UFC Vegas 86.
Entering his fifth main event, Hermansson withstood Pyfer's shots early on, taking control of the fight the longer it went. Hermansson ultimately outworked Pyfer over the distance to a unanimous decision victory, his first win since 2022.
Hermansson recaps getting back in the win column over the fighter that apparently hits harder than Francis Ngannou.
"I don't know about the hardest fight, but at least the hardest hitter [I've ever faced]," Hermansson told MMA Knockout on Thursday. "Definitely have a lot of punching power. But, there's so many things to this game as, uh, you know, it's hard to hit a moving target when you are moving.
"It's one thing to generate all of that power, object standing still. But it's, it's much harder to do it in fighting, of course. But, he definitely hit me hard, and I could feel that he had a lot of power."
'The Joker' details when the 'momentum shift' occurred in his fight vs. Pyfer and how things started to go more his way.
"It wasn't just like that he faded because he didn't necessarily get very slow and he didn't breathe super heavy. It was more that I felt like I got my timing and my distance and he lost his. But, that momentum shift was in the end of the second round."
Of course, this isn't Hermansson's first rodeo. The UFC veteran has headlined against the likes of Jacare Souza, Jared Cannonier, Marvin Vettori, and Sean Strickland and he would not shoot down another opportunity to do so.
"Yeah, that was definitely one of the best things about this matchup was that it was a main event," Hermansson continued. "I was very happy to be in that position after that long time off. I always say that's the slot where I wanna be at, to be the main event.
"That means that you know, you are headlining the card and you're the main attraction. So, I love to be in that spot. I was very, very happy to do it again."
Hermansson would like to meet Nassourdine Imavov in a five-round matchup, who is coming off his own main event win against Roman Dolidze a few weeks ago. The UFC middleweight believes his style is better suited for five rounds, not that he has a problem going the standard three.
"Yeah, that would be the best," Hermansson said of potentially headlining against Imavov. "If I can get a main event, I would always take it for sure. So, yeah, hopefully it would be a main event. But if not, I'm willing to do it in the three-rounder as well."
"I'm a volume puncher and I have great conditioning and I feel like it's always to my benefit if I have a five-rounder almost no matter who I'm facing."
The #10 ranked contender explains where a potential win over Imavov would put him in the already stacked UFC Middleweight division.
"If I were to beat [Imavov], that means that I would have another opportunity to climb a little bit higher and yeah, maybe two, three fights more after him [for a title shot] probably."
"This time next year, I want to have at least two more wins behind me," Hermansson added. "If I do, I'll be on a great three fight win streak with two more fights inside of the top 10. So, then I think people will be talking about me as a title challenger again."
If you use any quotes from this exclusive article, please leave an H/T to MMAKnockout.com for the transcription.
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