Jens Pulver talks Therapy, Rebuilding, & ‘Last Ride’
CAGEPOTATO: Jens, you’re fighting March 6th in Columbus, Ohio. You’ve lost four straight to some very good opponents. Any word…
CAGEPOTATO: Jens, you’re fighting March 6th in Columbus, Ohio. You’ve lost four straight to some very good opponents. Any word yet on who you are fighting?
JENS PULVER: Nope. I don’t know yet. I told them I don’t even want to know.
You actually asked not to know?
Not until they really have to tell me. Who cares who I’m fighting? Opponents don’t beat me, I’m beating me. You’ve got all these guys saying I’m getting punchy. I got hit on the head against Leonard but the other two of my last three losses were chokes. With Faber I ate everything, Lauzon clipped me on the chin. I’ve never been knocked out to the point of four minutes later they are waking me up and I’m trying to figure out what happened, saying ‘shit, what happened?’ I’ve been clipped. I might get punchy at some point but come on, it’s not happening now. Let me get mine. What fucking part of guillotine chokes don’t people understand? I appreciate their concern all the same but people don’t pay attention. Where does most of the damage fighters take come from? Not from fights but from when we are sparring with pillows on our hands and we take hours of brain rattling. Fights are five to twenty five minutes long; the brain damage comes from sparring. You don’t ever hear people saying we should quit sparring. So I’m not really worried about who I’m fighting. I’m fighting me right now. I’m fighting against myself, trying to be the old me. I’m trying to beat myself.
You’re talking about the old vs. new you.
I’m not talking about the young bullet-proof me. I’m talking about the middle me that has gotten his ass handed to him. I don’t complain to people, I don’t bitch about income. Of how there are all these other guys who have made a lot of money. Maybe I’m not that savvy with business. I’ve had a rebirth with meeting my wife, having my son and my daughter getting older. The biggest thing for me was how we moved training camps, finally. This one in Boise, I’ve designed. You can see it at DrivenTC.com. Just little things with this gym are going to make a lot of difference for me, I can’t even tell you. Our supposed great leader back in Iowa who didn’t even have a boxing ring or a cage — what kind of people fight in MMA and have never even sparred or trained in a cage? I’ve brought in Tony Fryklund and all positives happen with him around. That right there is leaps and bounds better.
You haven’t been full time with Miletich for some time but for your last few fights you’ve worked with Matt Hume and AMC Pankration in Washington. Does he have a cage or ring?
Matt Hume had a ring. That’s better at least because there is something to cut off. I got to train with Matt and them, right, but it was on short notice when I fought Faber and a lot of it was at their satellite school. They did a great job with me but it was a tough circumstance.
A lot of times fighters get cut after just one or two losses. What were your conversations with your bosses at Zuffa like after four straight losses?
I asked Dana White and Zuffa, ‘Please, give me one more shot. I’m going to make some changes.’ They asked, ‘What kind of changes?’ I told them that I was building my own gym and bringing it home to where I’m from. Bringing in Tony Fryklund, rebuilding everything, and I want to bring in the coaches like Duke Roufus and I’m working with BSU wrestlers. I’m bringing it back to where I started, training wise, and it’s a cool feeling. For me that’s what I needed. Its not just three people doing their thing then having to drive to boxing, drive to lifting, drive to another place to wrestle and then come back to the gym to train with one or two guys.
