411 MMA Interviews: Jens Pulver
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 07.01.2011
411's Jeffrey Harris sits down for an exclusive interview with former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver! Check out the full article to see what he had to say about his recent loss, his future fight plans, and more!
Jens Pulver (24-15) was recently at GameStop at Universal City Walk in Los Angeles for the special preview event of the new videogame Supremacy MMA. Pulver is one of the featured fighters in the game and not only that he is also the first ever UFC Lightweight Champion. At the event, 411mania.com got the chance to speak with Pulver and talk about his current status as a fighter and his plans for his next upcoming fight. Pulver is currently living and training at Jeff Curran's gym:
Jeffrey Harris: Jens, I forget, is this your first videogame appearance?
Jens Pulver: Well I was in UFC Dreamcast. I was in UFC PlayStation, the old ones. I was in the last UFC Undisputed but I was only on the PlayStation side. But this is my first arcade game. And the greatest thing is – a lot of games like the UFC and Strikeforce [games] are simulator games. They're like your FIFA Soccer, your Tiger Woods Golf, your Madden Football, but this is the first arcade videogame I've ever been in.
Jeffrey Harris: Since you are a big gamer this must be a very fun thing for you to be a part of, right?
Jens Pulver: This is very cool with the storylines because for one I was a really big fan of Tekken back in the day when I beat it and I opened up the Panda and I got to fight the Panda bear. That's how old school I am. This is that kind of game. You listen to those storylines and you start to build these guys and you unlock characters along the way. And you can play their characters. And I love that. I'm a Kratos fanatic. I love God of War for PlayStation. I love Kratos. I'm a big Warcraft, always have been and always will be a big Warcraft fan. But yeah, I'm a gigantic gamer. I'm a PC gamer, but console wise I got the PS3 because of the UFC game. I got the Xbox for Gears of War and a couple other games.
Jeffrey Harris: I know you aren't with ZUFFA now, but would it still be possible in a future UFC Undisputed game?
Jens Pulver: You know what, I think what they can do is make another unlockable and things like that. Even though I'm not fighting with them, I love them and they love me. The biggest thing is, I'm their first champion ever, so maybe if they want to put me in there, that'd be great.
Jeffrey Harris: You are still fighting, and you lost your last fight against Brian Davidson. What do you think happened?
Jens Pulver: I make no excuses. I will never make an excuse. I weighed at 139 lbs. My opponent was bigger. The size was easy, but when he up-kicked me, my nose was broken. I got a deviated septum. It cracked my pallet, cut me above my head, those 2 illegal up-kicks. And actually the first thing you're saying when you're conscious, "Yeah! C'mon, C'mon! Let's go, let's go!" I remember somebody yelling, "Take your 5 minutes." But I'm like, "Yeah, c'mon, let's go!" So there was just a lot of confusion. I shot back in, got caught in a rear naked choke, so be it. But I'm still proud of what I've been doing. I hit 139. I'm down to 6% body fat. I got to learn how to get lean. Sean Shelby, Joe Silva, they lectured me on that. I got caught. Did anybody else see how many takedowns I got? That was the first time I shot in six years . . .
Jeffrey Harris: So you still plan on fighting again right?
Jens Pulver: Yeah August 13 at 135 lbs.
Jeffrey Harris: How much longer do you plan on fighting?
Jens Pulver: Until I'm tired of training. I mean I have a degree in criminal justice. I can be a cop and arrest all the smart butts out there. But like I said, I'm really into gaming. I love the technical side. I couldn't tell you the mathematical side of how to build these systems, how to design, but I can see gameplay and I can adjust. I love the way games are, and I have really good ideas. Being at E3 to me is like my Super Bowl. To me, it's the Kentucky Derby. It's one of the best 3 days I can be a part of. So I would love to figure out with the work at I do at 505 with the work I do with the game coming out Supremacy and what I do with Sucker Punch, I would like to keep doing gaming. But right now, I just like fighting. I like training. I enjoy it.
Jeffrey Harris: So you still like training and it has not become a grind to you?
Jens Pulver: Love it. In fact, it's become – this is the first time I actually got to make it a grind where I live at the gym, and that's why I weighed '35. I'm not cutting weight because I feel like my butt was too big but I live at the gym day in and day out. And I'm having fun putting on a gi. I'm enjoying myself. And I'm having a good time. And my wife supports it. If I'm not improving, then I got to stop. But I'm improving man, I'm having fun.
Jeffrey Harris: Your first fight with Urijah Faber was one of the greatest fights I've ever seen and it really put the featherweight division on the map. And even though you were dominated and lost the fight, do you take pride at all in that fight sort of paved the way for the lighter weight classes on the big stage?
Jens Pulver: I'm very thankful. I got to keep my promise and if it was only to myself or the people that listened, when I started at 155 because I didn't want to fight at 170, I refused to believe that we couldn't handle a 155 pound division. A lot of people might be new to the game, and if they are, they'll understand – I started that weight class. I made it happen. I didn't want to be a '70 pounder. I knocked out '70 pounders until they gave me a shot at '55. And after that I wanted to develop '45 and '35, so yeah it meant a lot because Urijah [Faber] was doing it on his own and he wasn't really succeeding at it until a guy who came from the UFC, former world champ, it all came out right. And we had a lot of people come out to support it. We had a great card that night. They got to see that these little guys could get down. That's the one thing always in boxing. The little guys were always the foundation. They always kept the sport alive. Every now and then we'd have a Mike Tyson and we all got jumpy and love seeing a guy like Tyson decimate. But that got more sporadic and it's always the little guys saving it. Like right now, little guys are saving boxing. And I just never wanted to see a '25 pounder say I'm too small to be a fighter. I didn't want to hear. So I'm happy I got to keep my promise to help build little guys. And I think me and Urijah got to do that and now it's huge. On a historical scale, that was a huge opportunity.
Jeffrey Harris: What is your favorite fight you've ever been in?
Jens Pulver: Me vs. Stephen Palling in Hawaii. The reason being, I walked into Hawaii scared to death. Because I had these fights with BJ and the one thing I always loved about Hawaii is you can't roll into Hawaii fake. You can't be a fake fighter in Hawaii. They have always been the toughest critics because they have the best of Japanese fighting and American fighting. So they've always been extremely educated in the sport. Going there and fighting one of their heroes, one of their hometown boys, Stephen Palling; that was one of the first times where it was all said and done I was missing pieces of my head. The man beat a chunk of my soul out of me and he became my soul brother. He became one of my best friends on the planet. So it was huge to be able to walk in there and do that for those fans.
Jeffrey Harris: Do you know who your next opponent will be?
Jens Pulver: I thought I did, but I don't know if he's still going to fight me, but I don't know. I'm trying to step it up a little bit because I'm tired of these guys getting pumped up to fight me but I don't know who the hell they are so I'm not getting pumped up to fight them at all. I could care less. It's a hard situation.
Jeffrey Harris: Are there any sponsors or people you would like to thank or give a shout out to?
Jens Pulver: The biggest thing is Evilution, it's all about be a better you. EvilutionClothing.com. Sucker Punch Entertainment, I can't thank enough. Team Curran always. Supremacy MMA. GameStop for bringing us out here to do this. I'm a gaming freak. My computer is Alienware. Check out the aliens. They got an M18 right now that's disgusting. An M11 is probably more powerful than most people's desktops. And the fans, everybody, thank you guys out there for what you do.
Thank you to Jens Pulver for speaking with us. Supremacy MMA is due out September 27 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Remember to tune into 411mania.com this weekend as we will be doing live play-by-play coverage of all the UFC 132 prelims and main PPV card fights. And right after the event we will be doing a live special late night edition of the 411 Ground and Pound Radio Show. You can find out more and listen to a podcast of our last episode here:
