(The Nightmare returns; photo courtesy of MMA Junkie.)

A couple of important fight bookings to pass along this morning…

First, MMA Weekly reports that a welterweight bout between Diego Sanchez and Thiago Alves will take place at UFC 90 (October 25th, Chicago); the UFC hasn’t officially announced any of the fights on the card yet. Originally, Sanchez/Alves was rumored to take place at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England, but with that lineup filling out it looks like the Nightmare vs. the Pitbull will be used to anchor the UFC’s first show in Chi-town.

Meanwhile, Leonard Garcia has reportedly agreed to face Jens Pulver in a featherweight match at WEC 36 (September 10th; Hollywood, Florida). WEC 36 is also slated to feature title fights between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown, and Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen. Garcia hasn’t fought since a TKO victory over Hiroyuki Takaya at WEC 32 in February, after which he was caught up in a minor misunderstanding over drug smuggling. Pulver had to undergo elbow surgery after his unanimous decision loss to Urijah Faber last month, but according to Lil’ Evil, “everything is good.”

(Jens Pulver: Rode hard and put away wet.)

The California State Athletic Commission issued medical suspensions to 11 of the fighters who competed at WEC’s “Faber vs. Pulver” event on Sunday, and fuck are they brutal. 180-day suspensions were handed out to six fighters including Urijah Faber, Jens Pulver, and Yoshiro Maeda; according to the report, only Faber’s and Will Robeiro’s can end early with a doctor’s clearance. So, we hope whatever Maeda took home from his $6,000 salary after taxes, insurance, license fees and everything else can last him until December. Here’s the full list of suspensions, and the ouchies that caused them:

Urijah Faber: 180-day suspension due to a right-hand injury (can be cleared early by doctor)
Jens Pulver: 180-day suspension due to a right-eye orbital injury
Miguel Torres: 60-day suspension due to a cut
Yoshiro Maeda: 180-day suspension due to a right-eye orbital injury
Mark Munoz: 180-day suspension due to a right-hand injury
Chuck Grigsby: indefinite suspension due to a head injury (must be cleared by a doctor)
Rob McCullough: 60-day suspension due to a cut
Will Robeiro: 180-day suspension due to a right-hand injury (can be cleared early by doctor)
Jeremy Lang: 180-day suspension due to a left-ankle injury and a cut
Luis Do Santos: 45-day suspension with no contact for 30 days due to suffering a knockout
Alexandre Nogueira: 60-day suspension due to a cut

The California State Athletic Commission has released the official salary figures for WEC: Faber vs. Pulver, proving that just because you’re one of the best fighters in the world, not to mention the marketing face of your organization, doesn’t mean you’ll be paid like a star. The numbers are below; each winning fighter’s salary represents a doubling of their base salary (i.e., Faber earned $22,000 to show, and $22,000 to win). The figures don’t include sponsorship money, undisclosed “locker room” bonuses (which we really hope Yoshiro Maeda received), or deductions for insurance, licenses, and taxes.

Urijah Faber ($44,000) def. Jens Pulver ($33,000)
Miguel Torres ($28,000) def. Yoshiro Maeda ($6,000)
Mark Munoz ($16,000) def. Chuck Grigsby ($3,000)
Rob McCullough ($32,000) def. Kenneth Alexander ($3,000)
Donald Cerrone ($10,000) def. Danny Castillo ($3000)
Mike Brown ($10,000) def. Jeff Curran ($10,000)
Will Ribeiro ($6,000) def. Chase Beebe ($7,000)
Tim McKenzie ($12,000) def. Jeremy Lang ($4,000)
Alex Serdyukov ($6,000) def. Luis Sapo ($3,000)
Jose Aldo ($6,000) def. Alexandre Franca Nogueira ($8,000)
Dominic Cruz ($6,000) def. Charlie Valencia ($7,000)
Total: $260,000

Anyway, it’s just another reason why Faber should move up in weight and head to the UFC, especially now that he’s reached an Anderson Silva-level of domination in his league’s weight class. At this point in his career, the only challenges left are a superfight with Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto — who, by the way, will be fighting a complete nobody at DREAM.5 — and a run at lightweight. How much more can the WEC really do for him?

Those left with a bad taste in their mouth from the multiple fiascos of Saturday’s EliteXC show got a palate-cleansing burst of brilliant MMA last night, as WEC 34 in Sacramento featured arguably the two greatest bouts in the organization’s history.

In the featherweight championship match, Urijah Faber solidified his status as one of the best fighters in the world, wearing Jens Pulver down with explosive striking combos and showcasing his scary conditioning during the first 25-minute match of his career. Faber came out hard in his usual style, landing a couple of big punches and knees in the clinch. Though Faber slipped to the mat while attempting a kick, Pulver couldn’t capitalize on the ground and was kicked off. The fight was halted briefly when Pulver was poked in the eye, but Lil’ Evil refused to take recovery time. Pulver took Faber’s back briefly against the cage, and ate a spinning backfist for his efforts.

The second round began with another brief stoppage as Faber accidentally kicked Pulver in the groin following a punch combo. Faber dominated the next couple minutes, taking Pulver down, throwing some big elbows, then landing a vicious punch combination when Faber scrambled to his feet. Pulver looked rocked, but fired back with his own punches, including a sharp uppercut that shook Faber. Faber answered with a takedown attempt, but Pulver sprawled and nearly secured a front choke. Faber escaped and punished Pulver with punches until the bell sounded. Pulver seemed gassed at this point, and clearly frustrated that he was being outboxed.

The third round was probably the most exciting of the match, starting with a sharp head kick from Pulver. After Pulver sprawled on a takedown, Faber was able to take Pulver’s back and slam him to the ground, but Pulver bounced up and began a thrilling striking exchange ending with a devastating body kick that put Faber in serious trouble. Faber shot for a takedown but landed with Pulver on top of him and dropping elbows. Faber reversed the position and landed a couple elbows of his own before the fighters were stood up; Pulver was very slow in getting to his feet.

(Urijah Faber: Never a dull moment.)

Though EliteXC’s CBS show is grabbing most of the attention for this weekend, WEC is putting on its biggest event to date on Sunday at Sacramento’s ARCO Arena, headlined by the monumental featherweight championship match between Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver, and also featuring Miguel Torres, “Razor” Rob McCullough, Jeff Curran, Chase Beebe, and Charlie Valencia. If you get Versus, you can watch the action live starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. — and judging from recent WEC shows, missing it wouldn’t be in your best interest. Let’s take a look at the four main card fights…

Urijah Faber [champion] vs. Jens Pulver (featherweight title fight)
Don’t let his beautiful anaconda choke of Cub Swanson at WEC 31 fool you — Jens Pulver is still a stand-up banger, and his greatest advantage over the California Kid is his dynamite-loaded striking. Faber will probably try to trade shots for a while, but he’ll eventually employ his superior wrestling to get the fight to the mat and look for a submission or ground-and-pound TKO. If Faber can neutralize Pulver’s boxing and avoid getting caught early, the hometown boy’s relentless aggression and inventiveness will win the day. Prediction: Faber via 3rd-round submission.

Miguel Torres [champion] vs. Yoshiro Maeda (bantamweight title fight)
Miguel Torres owns one of the most impressive records in MMA (33-1, 21 wins via submission), but he didn’t start getting name-checked as one of the best fighters in the world until he tore through Chase Beebe in February to win WEC’s bantamweight title. Torres has never been stopped, and he avenged his sole loss to Ryan Ackerman in 2003 by submitting him two years later. Known more as a striker, Maeda is a seasoned veteran of Pancrase and DEEP, and made his impressive U.S. debut at WEC 32 when he delivered a knockout body-kick to Charlie Valencia midway through the first round. It’ll be a tough test for Torres, but he’s looked incredibly impressive in his last few matches, and he’s got enough momentum to defend his belt. Prediction: Torres extends his streak of five-straight submission victories to six, and does it in the second round.

Jens Pulver may have said that there would be no trash-talking leading up to his WEC featherweight championship match against Urijah Faber on June 1st, but Faber’s implication that Pulver has stopped evolving with the sport certainly comes close. Our favorite part: Jens punching out the cadence of his words at 1:58. This fight is going to kick so much ass…

Also: Check out this teaser clip for the upcoming first episode of Outside the Ring, hosted by Marika Taylor; for more Marika, go here.

Miss, I was born ready…

"1! 4! 5!"

Such was the battle cry of Jens Pulver after his 35-second submission victory over Cub Swanson at WEC 31 last December. Though some fans wondered if Pulver’s previous two losses in the UFC (to Joe Lauzon and BJ Penn) signaled that his career was heading toward its conclusion, the sheer dominance displayed in his first match as a featherweight proved that a new chapter was just beginning. And along with his fierce reputation, the win was enough to get him an immediate shot at the WEC’s featherweight title, which has been held by Urijah Faber since March 2006.

In his four title defenses, Faber has looked absolutely unbeatable. But he’s never faced anybody as seasoned or explosive as Pulver, whose 21 career victories include seven via stoppage in 60 seconds or less. The matchup, which goes down at WEC 34 (June 1st; Sacramento, CA), is easily the biggest 145-pound MMA contest in American history, and has all the ingredients to become an all-time classic. In advance of that fight, we called Jens at his home base in Bettendorf, Iowa, to discuss "The California Kid," his legacy, video games, and how his old rival BJ Penn will do against Sean Sherk at UFC 84.

***

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Talk to me about Urijah Faber — what do you think of him as a person?
JENS PULVER: Oh, I think he’s a great person. I like Urijah, man. He comes in great shape, likes to be explosive, and he’s really inventive out there in the cage. I think he’s done a real good job taking the reigns at 145, representing it, and trying to build it up.

So you don’t see yourself having a heated personal rivalry with him, like you had with Cub Swanson and BJ Penn? We’re not going to see any trash talking?
No, there’s no bad blood, no trash talking; it’s utmost respect. We’re gonna go out there and show everybody that we don’t have to have animosity to fight our hearts out. We’re going to prove that.

How much have you been studying Faber’s past fights?
I study habits. You don’t want to get too hard into what he’s done in the past, because he may change it up for me. So I just try to study things like how willing he is to stand up and when he’s going to shoot for takedowns. I study how hard a person fights, how hard they push things, and Urijah’s pretty much shown that he doesn’t fold. He had Curran on his back for almost a whole round and never panicked. He just stayed solid and waited for his opportunity.

Have you noticed any weaknesses in his game that you’ll try to exploit?
I wouldn’t call them weaknesses at all — like I said, he’s a great champ — but I have my plusses, and that’s what I’ll be going in there to exploit. I want to end up on top, I don’t want to be working my guard too much, and I want to control the pace. If he wants to box, I definitely want to be there to counterpunch and blast him with shots if I get those opportunities. If he wants to wrestle, I’m more than willing to use my ground game. It’s always been instinctual for me to keep fights standing, but the more I’m training and having fun on the ground, I’m trying to change those instincts.

Has anybody come across videos from Sengoku yet? I’ve been checking throughout the day and have so far come up with bupkus. But while looking for the Gomi/Ludwig fight, I did come across this match between Gomi and Jens Pulver from PRIDE Shockwave 2004 (12/31/04) that I’d never seen before. It’s a straight-up boxing match that stays standing until Gomi finds his distance and knocks Pulver out, collecting his fifth win in a ten-fight PRIDE win-streak.

(Dude does a mean Truffle Shuffle.)

— The fight card for Sengoku‘s first show has been announced. Scheduled to go down March 5th in Tokyo, the event is headlined by Josh Barnett’s fight against champion judoka/mediocre MMA fighter Hidehiko Yoshida, which Barnett should win handily. Sengoku 1 also features bouts between Takanori Gomi and Duane “Bang” Ludwig, and Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada.

— Jens Pulver choked Cub Swanson directly into the minor leagues. Swanson faces Donny “Eagle Eye” Walker at IFBL Fight Night 11 tomorrow night in Niles, Ohio. Sucks to be you, brah!

— TUF 6 castmember Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver will receive no jail time for that little shirtless misunderstanding he had last September.

— Did we hear that right? Did Bob Sapp say he can actually run for ten straight minutes?

— Chuck Liddell proves he’s no less intelligent than the average American during his disastrous performance on highbrow NPR quiz show “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” Not sure who advised him that this would be a good idea, but they should be taken off the payroll immediately. (To save yourself a whole lotta boredom, skip past the first five minutes.)

The fighter salaries for WEC 31 were released yesterday. Here are the figures for the fighters who were on the televised card:

Urijah Faber ($40,000, including $20,000 win bonus) def. Jeff Curran ($10,000)

Jens Pulver ($60,000, including $30,000 win bonus) def. Cub Swanson ($5,000)

Swanson might not be talking so much shit after this one. If you missed our WEC 31 recap, click here. I’d also like to point out that as of 5:04 p.m. ET, 41% of CagePotato poll-takers thought that the show was ridiculously, insanely awesome, while 59% of CagePotato poll-takers are idiots. Good to know!

Don’t know about y’all, but I’m still reeling from the collective awesomeness of last night’s WEC event. All six televised fights ended by stoppage within the first two rounds, all three defending champions retained their titles, and Jens Pulver choked out poor Cub Swanson in 35 seconds. If you decided instead to watch the three-hour UFC Unleashed special that was running on Spike opposite WEC 31, you are a dumb jackass.

Aside from a few opening stutters by co-commentator Frank Mir, the night was rocket-powered from the jump. Up first was light-heavyweight champion Doug Marshall facing off against Ariel Gandulla. Marshall tried to strike first with a flying knee, but Gandulla caught him in mid-air and slammed him to the mat. Gandulla then tried to work some ground-and-pound from Marshall’s guard, but was caught in an armbar by the more-experienced champ and was forced to tap at the 55 second mark. Ecstatic, Marshall jumped out of the cage, let out a battle roar on the judges’ table, and made his way into the crowd, visibly freaking out a portly audience member. Like I said: Awesome.

Next up were bantamweights Charlie Valencia and Ian McCall. There are few joys in life a pure as watching two 135-pound men beat the crap out of each other. Valencia exploited McCall’s weak defense from the beginning, landing a couple of strong right hands before a third power-punch sent McCall to the floor. Valencia took his back and suplexed him, but McCall was able to get back on his feet. He wouldn’t stay upright for long — Valencia battered him with more punches until McCall dropped again, after which Valencia set up a guillotine choke on the mat that made McCall tap at 3:19 into the first round.

The middleweight title match between Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen could have easily been the biggest upset since St. Pierre/Serra if it hadn’t ended in a very controversial stoppage. Everyone assumed that Filho — thought by many to be the best middleweight in the world — would crush Sonnen, a full-time real estate agent who trains in his free time. But it was Sonnen who fought like a champion, dominating Filho for nearly two full rounds, out-boxing the undefeated Brazilian and dominating him on the ground. After one huge punch and takedown, Sonnen shouted “He’s out!” to the referee, but the fight was allowed to continue. Filho had no answer for Sonnen’s attacks, and his submission attempts were all stuffed. Then, while on his back late in the second round, Filho locked onto Sonnen’s left arm and pulled down into an armbar. It certainly looked painful, and the referee must have thought so too because he stopped the fight with only five seconds left in the round, and before Sonnen tapped out. Sonnen was furious, and shouted “No, no, no!” at the ref, but the decision had been made, and Filho picked up a very undeserved win. To add even more insult to Sonnen, his loss was recorded as a “verbal submission.” Oh man, that’s exactly the opposite of what happened!

“California Kid” Urijah Faber defends his featherweight title against Jeff Curran, the unstoppable Paulo Filho defends his middleweight title against Chael Sonnen, Doug Marshall defends his light heavyweight title against Ariel Gandualla, UFC veteran Jens Pulver takes on Cub Swanson, and more. Spend some time with the following links and get psyched…

— CagePotato’s exclusive interview with Urijah Faber, in which he discusses opponent Jeff Curran, his training regimen, and San Diego’s best places to hang.

— MMA Weekly’s complete rundown of tonight’s card, which predicts that every champion will successfully defend, and Jens Pulver will lose by decision.

— Sherdog’s profile of full-time real estate agent Chael Sonnen. Man this guy is gonna get destroyed.

— Jens Pulver’s must-see RawVegasTV interview, where he sounds off on Cub Swanson, BJ Penn, and his asshole father.

— Cub Swanson has the worst tattoos since Melvin Costa.

Last Friday, I met up with World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champ Urijah “The California Kid” Faber at a little-known Italian joint called Carmine’s. Faber, who has already defended his title three times this year, will put his belt on the line once again at WEC 31, which goes down December 12th in Las Vegas and will be televised live on VERSUS starting at 9 p.m. ET. The stacked fight card also features a middleweight championship bout between Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen, a heavyweight championship fight between Doug Marshall and Ariel Gandulla, and the WEC debut of Jens Pulver. In this exclusive CagePotato interview, Faber shares his thoughts on Pulver, Justin Timberlake, and that little misunderstanding he had in Bali…

Let’s start with the most important question — what did you dress up as for Halloween?
I was a pimp! I had some gold chains, a hat with dollar signs all over it, and a fur coat that was my girlfriend’s grandmother’s. I kept it sober that night but I still had fun.

You’ll be defending your title against Jeff Curran next month. What’s your impression of Jeff as a fighter?
I think he’s really good. He’s a very good grappler, he’s got good hands, and he’s hard to finish. It seems like he’s got a chip on his shoulder, so I know he’s looking forward to fighting me, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have the edge.