Between The Ropes
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
ESPN Florida AM 1080 and AM 1060
Simulcast online at BetweenTheRopes.com

Jens Pulver joined Brian Fritz, Vito DeNucci, and Dickerman on Between The Ropes this past Tuesday night to discuss his June 1st WEC Featherweight Title fight against Urijah Faber on The Versus Network.

Pulver admitted that Urijah Faber has had an outstanding WEC career thus far and discussed his strategy heading into June 1st. “He’s done a phenomenal job – he’s done a great job carrying that belt … you have to grind him … the best way to take a guy who likes to scramble, you just have to trip him up. You just have to hold him down. I like to use the word ‘quicksand’, because you’re just kind of stuck in one spot. You really just have to grab him and make him carry me. I gotta make him carry his weight around – I gotta be the taller guy, I gotta be the bigger guy. I’m going into there with all the belief that I’m going to be the stronger guy, and you just have to utilize those things … You just can’t sit there and get into these scrambles with him.” Pulver said that he intends to keep the fight fast-paced and explained out how he would slow down flashier MMA competitors when he was a champion in UFC.

Pulver feels that cardio will play an important role against Faber, a fighter known for his “scrambling” abilities. “That’s the one thing that (Faber’s) good at – he really can keep it going high-paced. I’m very, very confident in my conditioning – like I said, I used to be the king of twenty-five minutes. I know what it takes and how to keep bouncing. My muscles are built, I’m ready to go … I’m ready to fight twenty-five minutes. I know it’s going to be high-paced.” Pulver compared a lengthy MMA fight to a long boxing match, stating the importance of wearing an opponent down in preparation for the later rounds.

Jens has been very pleased with the enthusiasm shown by both The Versus Network and WEC toward the June 1st broadcast. “I love the effort that Versus has put in to promote this fight, I love the effort WEC has done to promote this fight. Urijah’s put in effort, I’ve put in effort. Our job is to build this weight class, to build the smaller weight classes, and to build the WEC – and to build Versus. So, it’s just exciting how the fans have stepped up and how they’re coming to support it. It’s just amazing.” Pulver is enjoying the atmosphere leading up to the event and plans to thank everyone involved by presenting the fight of his life against Faber.

Pulver denies that his lack of animosity toward Faber will hinder him inside the cage. “If you’re a fighter … yeah, the bad blood, it motivates, of course, don’t get me wrong. But the reality is, this is my job. My job is to be the number-one fighter in the world. That’s why I came here. It’s not to be known as the town tough guy or anything like that. I’m out there to be the World Champion. I don’t have to hate to you hit you as hard as I can, because when we go into that cage, that’s twenty-five minutes. That’s our job – to pound each other. Our job is to come in great shape, our job is to excite the fans, our job is to submit each other, knock each other out, do what we have to do to get the win.” Pulver said he regrets leaving behind the UFC Lightweight Title (over a contract dispute with the company in 2002) and desires to win another belt now that MMA has evolved and become far more mainstream.

Despite competing at a lighter body weight against Faber in the one-hundred and forty-five pound division, Pulver feels he has not lost any of his power. “I feel phenomenal. I’m one-hundred and fifty-four pounds right now when I got on the scale today. So eating, dieting, doing everything I do … that’s why every time I’d get on the scale at fifty-five, I’d weight fifty-one, fifty-two. But that’s eating breakfast and never spending a day in the sauna. I didn’t have to cut weight, that was my weight. When I’m in good shape, that’s how much I weight. So at forty-five, I’m not the guy trying to cut twenty-five pounds two days out or a week out. That’s what I love about being at forty-five – I do have to be in great shape. I have to be in great running condition, great condition all-round to even be close to the weight. So the day of the weigh-ins, I’m going to have to lose maybe five pounds and that’s natural. I won’t skip a meal, I won’t do anything like that. I’ll eat all the way up until the weigh-ins. But when I’m in great shape, I’m a natural one-hundred and forty-five pounds.”

Pulver said that despite the beliefs of many MMA fans and insiders, he was not relegated in UFC and made the personal decision to join WEC. “I love the Zuffa family, I love the UFC, I loved when they brought me back, I love the WEC, I love where I’m at. I made this choice a long time ago. People thought when I lost to BJ Penn … I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I raised my hand and said, ‘I would absolutely love to go to the WEC. Now that forty-five has a home, I would love to be a part of that. I would love to be on Versus and I would love to help build this.’ So that was my choice and my doing and I’m very happy at the outcome.”

“That’s great,” Pulver stated in regard to the multitude of promotions emerging on the MMA landscape. “There are a lot of fighters out there. They need places to go. Shows need fighters and fighters need places to make money. Where I am I gonna be and what am I gonna do? I don’t know.”

Jens rejects the notion that his age will prevent him from enjoying success as an MMA athlete. “A lot of people say, ‘You’re getting too old.’ Thirty-two? I’ve got a few years left in me.”

To hear this interview in its entirety – including Pulver’s comparison of Urijah Faber to BJ Penn, his thoughts regarding Penn’s mindset as a fighter, and more – visit the show online at http://www.BetweenTheRopes.com, where you can also become a site member and access hundreds of previous BTR broadcasts and interviews. Join Brian Fritz, Vito DeNucci, and Dickerman for Between The Ropes every Tuesday night from 6:00-8:00 PM ET on ESPN Florida AM 1080 and AM 1060 or worldwide on BetweenTheRopes.com.