(That’s the fight game, Jens. You turn your back for one second, and your wife has her hands all over Monte Cox’s enormous stomach. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

For the second time in his 11-year fight career, Jens Pulver‘s relationship with Zuffa has ended. Dana White confirmed over the weekend that Pulver has been released by the WEC, following five consecutive losses over the last two years. Though there were rumors that Lil’ Evil would be taking over color commentary duties for the organization in the wake of Frank Mir’s departure, that’s not the case either. "We had talked about Jens being a part of the WEC somehow, but he’s not broadcasting," White said. For the WEC’s upcoming "Varner vs. Shalorus" event (June 20, Edmonton), the fighter-commentator spot will be filled by Kenny Florian.

Unfortunately, Jens isn’t one of those guys who can simply retire. A father of two children, he needs to fight to make a living. As he told CagedIn: “I’m a fighter. Fact is, I’ve been around a lot longer than these guys today, and I don’t make as much money [as] them. I’m 0-5, and that’s something I’ve got to fix with me, but I can’t take a year off to work on it. I’ve gotta fight.” The first 155-pound champion in UFC history, Pulver’s sole victory in the last four years was his quick choke-out of Cub Swanson at WEC 31 back in December 2007.

(For the next few weeks, "Comments of the Week" winners will score subscriptions to our favorite MMA-rag, Fight! Magazine. Follow Fight! on Twitter, and pick up the latest issue on newsstands now. Pictured above: "Gens" himself.)

There are some people in this world who are so socially inept and abrasive in real life that they can only function on the Internet, relying on non-relationships with total strangers via message boards and blog comments. And then, there are some people who can’t even do that right. Such is the case with "thisredengine," a truly bizarre individual who showed up here out of the blue on Tuesday, and immediately tried to impress all of you by claiming the following:

– He’s pretty well-known and respected over at BloodyElbow.com, and regularly tweets with Leland Roling. He’s pretty much an unofficial staffer there.
– MMA legend "Gens" Pulver once acknowledged something he wrote.
– He’s a jet-setting world traveler, on account of his job.
– He considers himself "one of the cool kids in the MMA community."
– He considers himself and BE’s Luke Thomas to be "a level above most in MMA conversations." The readers of this site would not be able to hang on his conversation-level.
– He ignores all comments from people he doesn’t know, which on this site would be everybody.

Though many of us (including myself) begged him to fuck off and leave us alone, he refused to fuck off. And so, new contributor ReX13 hit him with what will go down in history as the "I Have a Dream" speech of CagePotato.com…

CagePotato.coms MMA Minute: UFC on Versus Edition – Watch more Funny Videos

Because you never get tired of seeing our creepy faces, here’s another video installment of Ben vs. Ben, in which we cover some hot-button issues related to Sunday’s Vera vs. Jones show on Versus (How badly will Jon Jones beat Brandon Vera? Is the main card in greater need of a Carpenter or a Janitor?) and debut a brand-new segment called "Nice, Player!/Nah, Player!", which is inspired by the groundbreaking Ed Lover series "C’mon Son." Of course, you can’t really see our home-made cardboard signs because we’re Internet Geniuses and we didn’t realize that they wouldn’t fit inside the video windows. Trust us, they were awesome. Any suggestions for things you’d like to see in future installments of MMA Minute? You know, besides smaller cardboard signs? Let us hear it in the comments section…

(Chin up, Jens. At least you get to keep the awesome t-shirt.)

You know whose job I don’t envy? Well, pretty much anyone who has to actually do stuff for a living rather than just write about stuff. Honestly, I don’t know where you people find the energy. But more specifically, it occurs to me that the photographer who does these before and after shots of fighters that were posted to the UFC website has a deceptively tough gig.

Taking the actual picture seems easy enough, sure, but in order to get to that point he has to ask the fighter to take a second and pose for it. When he asks before the bout, the fighter is brimming with confidence fiery optimism. But afterwards? Particularly after he’s suffered what is most likely a career-ending defeat? That’s the last time I’d want to walk up to him with that camera in my hand and say, ‘Do you have a second, Jens?’

Once you’ve become numb to the desperation and vulnerability in Jens Pulver’s eyes and find yourself craving more of other people’s pain, continue on after the jump to see Miguel Torres trying to keep cool even as blood from an enormous gash trickles down his face.

(Props: Inside MMA via TtoMyJ14)

At Shark Fights 2 in December 2008, Shannon Ritch ended John Wood’s night in 15 seconds with a technique that pro-wrestling fans will immediately recognize as a "superkick." Apparently it works in real life, too. This was the last in a four-fight win streak that Shannon had going in 2008, and if you know anything about The Cannon’s career, you know what a big deal that is. Fun fact: Ritch’s last 26 fights have ended in the first round; he won 10 of those fights.

After the jump: An early highlight from Jens Pulver’s vast body of work that you probably haven’t seen before.

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

The WEC paid out $276,500 in disclosed salaries and bonuses for their WEC 47 card on Saturday, with bantamweight contender Joseph Benavidez taking home the biggest cut. Benavidez’s $39,000 haul — including his win bonus and submission bonus — made him one of just three fighters to earn over $20,000 from the event. The numbers are below; keep in mind that they don’t include income from sponsorships or undisclosed "locker-room bonuses," or deductions for taxes, insurance, and licensing fees.

Dominick Cruz: $18,000 (includes $9,000 win bonus)
Brian Bowles: $12,000

Joseph Benavidez: $39,000 (includes $14,500 win bonus, $10,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
Miguel Torres: $26,000

Javier Vazquez: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus)
Jens Pulver: $14,000*

L.C. Davis: $18,000 (includes $9,000 win bonus)
Deividas Taurosevicius: $9,000

(Photo courtesy of Fight Magazine.)

After more than ten years in the game and 36 professional fights, it’s looking like the sun may have finally set on Jens Pulver’s career. “Lil Evil” wasn’t necessarily the guy who ever dominated his division completely. In fact, in many of his fights with big name opponents – guys like Takanori Gomi, Urijah Faber, and B.J. Penn (at least the second time) – he came out on the losing end. But fans have revered Pulver not because he won every time out, but because he always fought with fury and passion, and because there was always a chance that he might come close to decapitating someone with one well-placed left hand.

With a string of recent losses his fighting days are (hopefully) behind him for good now, but that doesn’t mean we should forget what a terror he once was. As we have with other MMA warriors, sometimes prematurely, we now pay tribute to some of Pulver’s greatest moments in the cage.

(Props: FightersOnlyMagazine)

At WEC 47‘s post-event press conference, MMA legend Jens Pulver discussed the pride he feels in watching the lighter weight-divisions develop into popular, exciting products — even if the level of competition in those divisions has officially passed him by. "I’m just a proud old man," Pulver said. "I’m a proud poppa, I guess, I’m the godfather of this stuff, and it’s a good place and a good way to go." The younger fighters in attendance took some time to talk about what Jens meant to them as featherweights and bantamweights following the trail that Lil’ Evil blazed…

Scott Jorgensen: "Jens is one of the guys that kind of got me interested in MMA as an actual sport that I could compete in…The guy’s the greatest guy ever. He’s sincere, he’s from the heart, what he says he means. I don’t have a bad word to say about him, he’s the best, man. I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without people like Jens."

(Looks like someone deserves a lollipop for being such a brave boy. Photo courtesy of Brian Bowles‘s Twitter.)

Fans were treated to a night of upsets at WEC 47, as favorites Brian Bowles and Miguel Torres both went down to unceremonious defeats in Columbus, Ohio. As you see in the above photo, Bowles wasn’t kidding about that injured hand. He claims to have broken it on the very first punch he landed, which then threw his whole game off and eventually prompted him to relinquish his title when he couldn’t continue past round two. That makes Dominick Cruz your new 135-pound champ, and the way the title’s been bouncing around lately he better get all the enjoyment he can out of it while it lasts.

In another minor shock, 5’4” Joseph Benavidez swarmed all over former champ Miguel Torres before securing a guillotine choke in the second round that forced Torres to tap out. With the victory, Benavidez claimed the $10,000 bonus check for Submission of the Night. The other bonus awards went to Anthony Pettis for his Knockout of the Night-winning finish of Danny Castillo, and to George Roop and Leonard Garcia, who earned Fight of the Night in a three-round draw during the prelims.

Attention MMA FightPicker players: WEC 47 goes down tomorrow, which means it’s time to get off your lazy asses and make some predictions. As we do every time there’s a notable MMA event over the weekend, BF and I decided to join the same FightPicker pool in order to compete in an absolutely meaningless pissing-contest over bragging rights. But as soon as we entered Contender Pool 10 #635, we knew that this week wouldn’t be like all the others. Right there at the bottom of the player’s list was Aaron Rampey, FightPicker’s capo di tutti capi. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Aaron is entering pretty much every pool at this point, but the stakes just got a little higher. Will the Bens be able to outgun FightPicker’s point-leader and creep up the rankings themselves? Will it matter, since Rampey has probably learned how to game the system by hedging bets over multiple pools? Be sure to check back in on Monday to see how it all plays out, and read on to see our picks for this week…

Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz @ WEC 47: Who will win?
BG: Bowles. Cruz is a very worthy challenger, but Bowles has been so dominant in his WEC career that there’s really no reason to bet against him.
BF: Agreed. There’s just no way I can go against Bowles, who reminds me of a grown-up Dennis the Menace, only heavy on the menace.

Will Bowles vs. Cruz make it to round 3?
BG: That’s a tough one. Bowles usually doesn’t need more than two rounds, and Cruz has gone to the cards in his last four. But I have to assume that Bowles will impose his will and blow Cruz out like everybody else he’s faced.
BF: Honestly, I’ll be surprised if it makes it to round 2. I think we’re looking at about 3-4 minutes of action, much like your wedding night, BG, only with less sobbing.

(Above image courtesy of twitter.com/mmaweeklycom. Below images courtesy of TapouT.)

No MMA fighter embodies the underdog spirit of Little Mac better than Jens "Lil’ Evil" Pulver — which is why his new Punch-Out!!-themed signature shirt from TapouT is so badass. Pulver throws down this Saturday night at WEC 47 in Columbus against Javier Vazquez, who will hopefully be wearing a turban that flashes when he’s vulnerable. You can buy Jens’s walkout t-shirt here for the sensible price of $28.

Previously: Clay Guida’s UFC 107 Walkout T-Shirt Is F*ckin’ Rad

(Props: gregorybayne)

If there’s any MMA fighter who deserves to have a documentary made about him it’s Jens Pulver, who survived a profoundly abusive childhood and went on to become the UFC’s first 155-pound champion, but now faces his last ride after losing four straight fights in the WEC. The above clip is from a work-in-progress called Driven by filmmaker Gregory Bayne. If you watch it, you’ll most likely have a strong urge to see the whole thing. There’s one small problem: It’s not even close to finished, and Bayne needs funding to keep working on it. As he explains on Kickstarter.com:

Right now, supporters have pledged $1,045 of the $25,000 goal, with just 16 days until the deadline. So if you have any charity-money left after giving your life savings to Wyclef Jean, click on this link to read more about the project — and what each level of donation will get you in return — and hit that green "Back This Project" box to toss in a few bucks. Every little bit helps.

(Photo courtesy of vegasnews.com.)

By CagePotato.com contributor Elias Cepeda

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.

In an interview done with Steve Cofield yesterday, Jens Pulver warned his longtime friend and Miletich teammate Tim Sylvia that boxing is a different world from MMA, and he might be setting himself up for another career setback if he’s not taking Ray Mercer seriously. "I love [Sylvia] on a personal scale," Pulver said, "[but] professionally, sometimes you gotta step back and say ‘damn Tim, what are you doing?’"

Thankfully, it’s become a moot point, as the Sylvia vs. Mercer boxing match scheduled to headline Adrenaline III this Saturday has been declared "unwarranted and illegal" by the Association of Boxing Commissions. As Fightnews reports:

Gash of the year, right there; props to Bloody Elbow for the tip. Video of the Jose Aldo flying knee that gave him that cut is below, and some more WEC 41 fights are after the jump in case you missed the show on Sunday.

(Mike Brown — toughest ginger alive. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

I know we say this almost every time there’s a WEC show — but how insane was that card last night? The main event rematch between featherweight champ Mike Brown and Urijah Faber became the latest Legendary WEC Title Fight, with the two best 145-pounders in the world slugging it out for all 25 minutes. Though every round was close, Brown got the edge from the judges thanks to his consistent takedowns and submission attempts. But who knows what would have happened if Faber didn’t break his right hand in the first round? The California Kid showed a tremendous display of guts in pushing through the pain; instead of punching with the busted paw, Faber switched to standing elbows, which turned out to be surprisingly effective. Still, the champ took everything Faber dished out, and aside from a couple of close guillotine attempts from the hometown hero, Brown steadily pushed the pace, ground down the challenger, and stayed out of trouble.

Faber’s loss may not be enough to drop him from the #2-spot in the featherweight rankings, especially when you take his injury into account. Brown and Faber have become the Federer and Nadal of the WEC — they should just keep fighting every year, no matter what the score is.

(The fact that Faber got KTFO’d by Brown last time just means he’s due for a win, right? Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

If Saturday’s Strikeforce matchups seem a little too unpredictable for you to throw some money down, may we suggest taking your mortgage payment disposable entertainment income and wagering it on Sunday’s WEC event instead? There might be some "sure things" to be found here — and when you bet on smaller fighters, they appreciate it more. Check out these odds from our new friends at MMA Moneyline and let’s see if we can’t get daddy his proverbial new pair of shoes:

Urijah Faber (-115) vs. Mike Brown (+120)
Jose Aldo (-360) vs. Cub Swanson (+300)
Donald Cerrone (-400) vs. James Krause (+450)
Josh Grispi (-150) vs. Jens Pulver (+130)
Manny Gamburyan (-225) vs. John Franchi (+200)
Rafael Rebello (-110) vs. Kyle Dietz (-110)
Mike Campbell (-275) vs Anthony Pettis (+260)
Scott Jorgensen (-145) vs. Antonio Banuelos (+135)
Frank Gomez (-140) vs. Noah Thomas (+135)
Seth Dikun (-115) vs. Rolando Perez (-110)

Okay, you want our advice?

(My God, the animosity between these two. It’s like the entire room could burst into flames at any moment.)

MMA fans have a full dance-card this weekend, with Strikeforce putting on a stacked Showtime event on Saturday night (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT), and the WEC following it up on Sunday night with a show on Versus headlined by featherweight champion Mike Brown’s second meeting with Urijah Faber (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT). Be sure to come back here Saturday night for the Strikeforce liveblog — and get psyched for the whole shebang by reading the latest installment of the longest-running MMA argument on the Internet. Ben vs. Ben starts right now…

Brett Rogers says he wants to stand and bang with Andrei Arlovski on Saturday. That sounds like a horrible idea for "The Grimm," given that Arlovski is just as big and strong as he is but with much more technical striking. Does Rogers stand a chance with that strategy, or is he an unconscious man walking at this point?

BG: WTF? Is Rogers supposed to take Arlovski down and sub him out with his battle-tested Grimjitsu? I’m not trying to hate on Brett’s ground game, because none of us have actually seen it; he’s a brawler, and thus far he’s only had to face other brawlers. Arlovski, on the other hand, actually has some submission skills in his back pocket. So while we know that Rogers will be fighting an uphill battle on Saturday night, I’d say his odds decrease even further if the fight goes anywhere else besides stand-and-bangville.

Brett’s only shot is to stick to his bread-and-butter and swing those hamhocks. The fact that Arlovski’s hands are far more technical means that the Grimm will probably get picked apart. But Arlovski’s unreliable chin makes him vulnerable to what Rogers brings into the cage. That’s what makes this fight compelling for me: Brett Rogers definitely should not be able to beat Andrei Arlovski — but he just might.

BF: With regard to the submission skills in Arlovski’s back pocket, I hope your finger slipped and you really meant to type ‘submission skill.’ As in, his straight achilles lock. That’s all the dude’s got on the mat and he goes to it like it’s his signature killer move, so let’s not pretend that there any Arlovski-platas in the near future.

(Better get the next ice-pack ready. Photo courtesy of Yardbarker.)

Alright, let’s get to it…

— After an injury forced Josh Thomson to drop out of his Strikeforce rematch with Gilbert Melendez, a replacement has reportedly been found, according to The Fight Network. Taking on Melendez at Saturday’s "Shamrock vs. Diaz" event will be Rodrigo Damm, an 8-2 veteran of Bodog Fight and Sengoku. Damm hasn’t competed since last August, when he was choked out by Eiji Mitsuoka at Sengoku Fourth Battle.

— Winless since his WEC debut against Cub Swanson in December 2007, Jens Pulver will be given another chance to score a victory at WEC 41 (June 7th, Sacramento). Lil’ Evil will be facing 20-year-old up-and-comer Josh "The Fluke" Grispi (12-1), who has gone 2-0 in the WEC with first-round stoppages over Mark Hominick and Micah Miller. WEC 41 will be headlined by the rematch between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown.

— TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah has an opponent for his much-delayed return at UFC 101 (August 8th, Philadelphia). MMA Weekly confirms that Sadollah’s welterweight debut will come against Johny Hendricks, a 5-0 transfer from the WEC’s defunct 170-pound division who won a unanimous decision over Alex Serdyukov at WEC 39 last month. Also on the card will be another welterweight bout between Tamdan McCrory (who’s coming off a submission victory over Ryan Madigan at UFC 96 in March) and John Howard (who most recently won a Fight of the Night bonus for his split-decision victory over Chris Wilson at UFC 94 in January). UFC 101 will be headlined by the lightweight title scrap between BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

(Jens Pulver finds himself in an all-too-familiar spot against Urijah Faber at WEC 38. Photo courtesy of WEC.tv.)

From JensPulver.com via MMA Mania:

Sucks to hear a legend like Pulver come face-to-face with the end of the line. But to me, Pulver’s loss to Urijah Faber on Sunday didn’t prove much — we already knew he couldn’t hang with the California Kid. Any fighter needs to do some serious re-evaluation after taking three straight losses, but the WEC can at least partially be blamed for Pulver’s last one. They’re the ones who booked him against Faber (again) after he was already on a two-fight skid, and didn’t let him postpone the match to March even though he was dealing with a new baby and the death of a close friend.

Between the two losses to Faber, Pulver got wrecked by Leonard Garcia, who may become the WEC’s next 145-pound champion. But in his first fight in the WEC, he choked out the very-respectable Cub Swanson in 35 seconds. Has Pulver really deteriorated that much in the last two years, or did he just run into Garcia on a good night, and Faber on any night? Why pack it in when you’re still skilled enough to beat good fighters (though not great ones), and when fans still love to watch you compete? Or is there no point when you know you’ll never be a champion again?

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly; gif courtesy of the UG.)

Former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber was able to score a victory over Jens Pulver for the second time last night at WEC 38 — and in 23 minutes and 26 seconds less than it took in their first meeting last June. Their co-headlining bout started fast and physical, with Pulver tossing Faber to the ground after a high kick attempt. But it wasn’t long before Faber drilled a vicious left hook to Lil’ Evil’s ribs, doubling over the former UFC champ and backing him up. Faber seized the opportunity and fired off punches until Pulver hit the ground, then followed Pulver to the mat and set up a fight-ending choke. The win earned the California Kid a $7,500 Submission of the Night bonus.

Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone also got some extra cash for the evening’s Fight of the Night, in which Varner defended his lightweight title and gave Cowboy the first loss of his career. Though Cerrone was the aggressor for most of the fight, and won many of the striking exchanges — thanks in large part to the long reach of his left high kick — Varner was able to take the challenger down at will, and inflicted major damage with his ground-and-pound. In the middle of round three, a punch from Varner opened a cut near Cerrone’s left eye that clearly inhibited his vision; his right eye was already swelling shut from previous abuse.

In the fifth round, Cerrone scored a successful takedown of his own, but made the mistake of bouncing a knee strike off Varner’s head while the champ was still kneeling. The action was immediately halted, and was never restarted, as a seemingly agonized Varner told doctors that he couldn’t see, and shouted "fuck!" more times than I’ve ever heard on basic cable. The fight went to the scorecards, where two judges saw it for Varner, and one judge (possibly blind himself) called it for Cerrone. The crowd booed Varner; distraught about how the fight ended, he told the fans "fuckin’ boo me, I’m better than that," and promised Cerrone a rematch as soon as he was cleared by the athletic commission.

(Varner on Cerrone: "If he goes toe to toe with me, he’s a dead man.")

Though it’s being swallowed in the collective hype of UFC 93, UFC 94, and Affliction: Day of Reckoning, the WEC is holding their next event this coming Sunday (1/25) at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA. For once, Urijah Faber‘s fight won’t be the most interesting one on the card. Sure, his three-round rematch with Jens Pulver will be a must-see for California Kid/Lil’ Evil fans, but the real heat is behind the lightweight championship main event, in which defending champ Jamie Varner looks to make his second belt-defense against Donald Cerrone, the undefeated Greg Jackson-product who was one-half of WEC 36′s best fight. You can watch the action live on Versus beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT; the full lineup is below…

MAIN CARD
Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone (for lightweight championship)
Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver (FW)
Danillo Villefort vs. Mike Campbell (WW)
Jose Aldo vs. Rolando Perez (FW)

UNDERCARD
Benson Henderson vs. Anthony Njokuani (LW)
Edgar Garcia vs. Hiromitsu Miura (WW)
Dominick Cruz vs. Ian McCall (FW)
Scott Jorgenson vs. Frank Gomez (BW)
Blas Avena vs. Jesse Lennox (WW)
Charlie Valencia vs. Seth Dikun (BW)

Related: WEC 39 goes down March 1st in Corpus Christi, Texas, featuring the featherweight championship bout between Mike Brown and Leonard Garcia, and a welterweight title scrap between Carlos Condit and Brock Larson.

(What the hell, let’s do it again.)

Urijah Faber may have to wait a while for Mike Brown to heal up before he can get a crack at reclaiming his featherweight title, but in the meantime he can keep himself sharp with another go at former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver.  MMA Weekly says the two will meet again at WEC 38 in San Diego on January 25, though it’s not yet officially signed.  

You might recall that both men fought on the last WEC card, and both lost via TKO.  The difference is that Faber’s loss was a major shock, and most people were generous enough to attribute it to him simply “getting caught” as we say in the business when we want to be nice.  Pulver, on the other hand, got beat down by Leonard Garcia in a fight that seemed to signal that he might be approaching the twilight of his fine career.

It’s not surprising that the WEC would want to run Faber-Pulver II, given the success of the first fight, but there’s also not much reason to think this one will turn out any differently.  Pulver hung in there for five rounds and took a unanimous decision loss in what turned out to be one hell of a fight the first time.  Now Faber has a little more to prove, and Pulver looks even further from his prime.  If he drops his third straight in the 145-pound division, you have to wonder what’s left.

At least the WEC can probably squeeze one more sell-out from this matchup, and hopefully we’ll be treated to another solid fight.

(“It was a big, white, semi-truck. The license plate was JACKLINKS.”)

“The ref [Mario Yamasaki] was going, ‘Eh, is [Couture] OK?’ Mario was trying to give him time [to recover]. There’s a fine line between that and [allowing] too many punches. When I saw Randy go back down, I thought we had crossed that line.” — Dana White on the stoppage in UFC 91′s Lesnar/Couture fight, which some questioned as dangerously late.

“He came in a couple days ago and I introduced him to Manny and the other trainers. We picked out a time…and he’s gonna come in and start training with me. I hear he’s a great striker and I hope we can help him improve even more.” — Beloved boxing trainer Freddie Roach on his new protege, Anderson Silva.

“I’d fight him. The thing about a Machida fight that isn’t appealing to me is that stylistically, Machida is kind of a boring fighter. That’s not a putdown. He’s very, very effective. He’s good at what he does. He’s constantly backing away and forces his opponent into mistakes, and that’s how he catches you. In order to beat him, you really have to fight an intelligent fight, and I think that by not overcommitting yourself on things, it’s going to create a situation where you’re not putting on a fight that’s really exciting for the fans.” — Rich Franklin stating the obvious regarding a potential rematch with Lyoto Machida. Machida gave Franklin his first career loss via TKO at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye Festival in 2003.

(‘Fuck you, pay me.’)

When we looked at the payouts for WEC 36 and saw $14,000 next to Urijah Faber‘s name, we had little choice but to assume that Zuffa was screwing him like a one-legged Panamanian hooker: cheaply and with shocking disregard for his delicate feelings.

But Faber’s manager, Mike Roberts, says that figure was “not even close” to a full accounting of what Faber was paid to face Mike Brown:

“That was an accurate statement of the check he received that night. Some contractual issues came up after the September fight was postponed and that $14,000 was the remaining balance of what was owed to him. That is not what he made.”

[...]

“Keep in mind Urijah’s still fighting off an old contract, but Urijah’s been well taken care of for the last couple fights.”

(Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown; props to MMA Scraps.)

Last night’s WEC show drew 5,227 fans for a live gate of $563,578, according to MMA Weekly. $7,500 bonuses were awarded to the following fighters:

Fight of the Night: Donald Cerrone and Rob McCullough for their three-round undercard war that some are calling a fight-of-the-year candidate; too bad we had to see the Filho/Sonnen debacle instead. Cerrone took home the unanimous decision win.

Knockout of the Night: Mike Brown for his beating of Urijah Faber. Which was nice and all, though Aaron Simpson kinda got robbed.

Submission of the Night: Rani Yahya for his first-round guillotine choke of Yoshiro Maeda, also from the undercard.

TKO of the Night?: Leonard Garcia reportedly got an extra $7,500 for steamrolling Jens Pulver.

Full results can be found here. More videos after the jump…

(“Boys, please, can’t you settle your differences with words?” Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

The California Kid invades Hollywood (Florida), Chael “RE/MAX” Sonnen aims to do a bit of closing on Paulo Filho’s middleweight title reign, and Leonard Garcia will be smuggling nothing but his fists and feet across the border that is Jens Pulver’s face. I’m coked-out Mauro Ranallo and I’ll be your liveblogger tonight — the specials are honor, glory, pumpkin crème brûlée, and maybe some championship gold?

Just kidding, it’s only me, BG. Hit that “More” link and refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest from tonight’s live event on Versus. Should be a monster.

Watching this NBC Sports video preview of tonight’s Jens Pulver-Leonard Garcia bout, I am officially psyched. You have to love Pulver’s ‘I’m getting too old for this shit’ attitude when it comes to fighting these young whipper-snappers, just as you also have to love that he arrives at the event looking like he stopped to fight in several bar parking lots on the way. I’ve never seen a guy so content in the role of gatekeeper or so compelling in it.

With Urijah Faber facing another tough, though probably doomed opponent, and with Paulo Filho showing up too fat to put his title on the line, Pulver-Garcia is looking like it could easily turn out to be the fight of the night. In fact, I’m so confident this bout will deliver, if it turns out to be anything other than a thriller I’ll eat my hat.*

* my hat is a meatball sub.

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

The WEC has released the final lineup for next Wednesday’s event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Here’s what we’ll be seeing:

Main Card (airing live on Versus, 8 p.m. ET)
Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown (for featherweight championship)
Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen (for middleweight championship)
Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia (featherweights)
Jake Rosholt vs. Nissen Osterneck (middleweights)
Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone (lightweights)

Undercard
David Avellan vs. Aaron Simpson (light-heavyweights)
Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Brookins (featherweights)
Alex Schoenauer vs. Steve Steinbeiss (light-heavyweights)
Danny Castillo vs. Ed Ratcliff (lightweights)
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Rani Yahya (bantamweights)

The video promo above wonders if Mike Brown is the man to stop Urijah Faber’s reign of dominance in the WEC. Most likely, he isn’t — which should explain why Faber’s betting line is as high as -450 on sports wagering sites. The fight to really pay attention to here is Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen. Before the controversial armbar stoppage in their first match last December, Chael Sonnen was dominating Filho, beating the middleweight champ standing and scoring multiple takedowns. Filho entered treatment for chemical dependency shortly after the fight, and hasn’t competed since; Sonnen last fought at WEC 33 in March, where he won a decision over Bryan Baker. It’ll be interesting to see where Filho’s head is at. And of course, there’s no way Lil’ Evil vs. Bad Boy will be a dull fight. Not bad for free TV…

(Urijah Faber talks upcoming title defense with ESPN)

The WEC has announced the full fight card for their September 10 event in Florida, and once again it’s a fairly stacked show from Zuffa’s minor leagues. Most notable is the official announcement that former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver will be taking on Leonard “Just Try and Make Those Charges Stick” Garcia. It also includes Urijah Faber defending his title against Mike Brown, and Paulo Filho making his return to action in a rematch against Chael Sonnen.

Making their WEC debuts are two Team Takedown members — Jake Rosholt and Johny Hendricks — who are definitely worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Here’s the full lineup:

Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen
Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia
Danillo Villefort vs. Jake Rosholt
Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone
Rani Yahya vs. Yoshihiro Maeda
David Avellan vs. Tim McKenzie
Johny Hendricks vs. Alex Serdyukov
Ed Ratcliff vs. Danny Castillo