Storylines to Watch at UFC Fight Night 236

Joseph Pyfer should soon provide some clarity regarding exactly where he stands in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight pecking order.

The two-time Dana White’s Contender Series alum and former Ring of Combat champion will square off with Jack Hermansson in the UFC Fight Night 236 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where a spot in the Top 15 rankings at 185 pounds figures to be on the line. Pyfer, 27, has rattled off five consecutive victories, all of them finishes, in his rise to marquee attraction status. He last appeared at UFC Fight Night 229, where he put Abdul Razak Alhassan to sleep with an arm-triangle in the second round of their Oct. 7 encounter. Hermansson, meanwhile, carries a long and proven track record. The onetime Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder owns a 10-6 record inside the Octagon, even though he has alternated wins and losses in each of his past seven outings. Hermansson last fought on Dec. 3, 2022, when he succumbed to second-round punches from Roman Dolidze at UFC on ESPN 42.

The Pyfer-Hermansson showdown and its resulting fallout for the middleweight division is but one storyline to watch at UFC Fight Night 236. Here are four more:

Lights, Camera, Action

Dan Ige always promises fireworks, especially against an opponent who sounds more than willing to respond with violent tendencies of his own. The three-time “Performance of the Night” bonus winner figures to encounter such a man when he faces Team Alpha Male’s Andre Fili in the featherweight co-main event. Ige has lost five of his past eight bouts and finds himself on the rebound following a unanimous decision defeat to Bryce Mitchell at UFC Fight Night 228 in September. Victories over Mirsad Bektic, Edson Barbosa and Gavin Tucker—the latter a 22-second knockout—anchor his resume. On the other side of the equation, Fili seeks back-to-back wins for the first time since 2019. He last suited up on Dec. 16, when he put away Lucas Almeida with punches in the first round of their UFC 296 pairing. Which battle-proven veteran rises to the equation at 145 pounds?

Speaking from Experience

Not many fighters can claim to have stayed on the UFC roster uninterrupted since 2010. Cue Michael Johnson. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 12 semifinalist answers the promotion’s call to arms for 29th time when he toes the line against Darrius Flowers in a three-round lightweight showcase. Johnson, who turns 38 in June, steps back into the spotlight having lost six times across his last eight assignments. The Kill Cliff Fight Club mainstay has not competed since being knocked out by Diego Ferreira in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 223 clash on May 20. Flowers, meanwhile, has yet to establish a foothold in the organization. He stubbed his toe in his Octagon debut at UFC 291, where he bowed to a rear-naked choke from Jake Matthews in the second round of their July 29 encounter. As Johnson drifts through his late 30s, how much does he have left in the tank?

Enigmatic Wizardry

No one knows quite what to make of Rodolfo Vieira yet, even as one of the most decorated grapplers of his generation. Brilliant at times and downright disappointing at others, the 2015 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Fighting World Championships gold medalist sports a 4-2 record in the UFC ahead of his featured middleweight attraction opposite Armen Petrosyan. Vieira, 34, last fought at UFC on ESPN 45, where he rebounded from a unanimous decision defeat to Chris Curtis in a did so in style by dismissing Cody Brundage with a second-round arm-triangle choke on April 29. All nine of his victories have resulted in finishes, eight of them via submission. On the other side docket, Petrosyan enters the cage with the wind of back-to-back wins in his sails. The former Fight Nights Global champion last slung leather on June 17, when he outstruck Christian Leroy Duncan to a unanimous decision at UFC on ESPN 47. Can Vieira finally live up to the hype and get his hand raised in consecutive appearances for the first time since 2020?

No One Size Fits All

The excellent work of Konklak Suphisara has somehow managed to fly under the radar in the women’s strawweight division. “Loma Lookboonmee” buoys the undercard when she puts her two-fight winning streak on the line against Bruna Brasil at 115 pounds. The 28-year-old Suphisara has quietly compiled a 6-2 mark since she linked arms with the UFC as the company’s first Thai fighter in 2019. An accomplished muay thai stylist and natural atomweight, she has managed to overcome the size and strength disparities with which she has been presented at the sport’s highest level. Brasil, meanwhile, has posted eight wins over her past nine outings, establishing herself as a person of interest in a weight class currently ruled by Chinese stars Weili Zhang and Xiaonan Yan. She evened her Octagon record at 1-1 in July, when she laid claim to a three-round unanimous decision over Shauna Bannon at UFC Fight Night 224. Will Suphisara build on her momentum at Brasil’s expense despite being at a five-inch height and four-inch reach disadvantage?