By Neil Davidson
THE CANADIAN PRESS
The little guys will be standing tall Sunday in Sacramento as Urijah (The California Kid) Faber defends his World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight title against former UFC lightweight champion Jens (Li’l Evil) Pulver.
The five-foot-six Faber (20-1) has won his last 12 mixed martial arts fights, often in short order. None of those have gone into the third round and seven didn’t make it past the first. Speedy and skilled, the 29-year-old Sacramento native hasn’t needed to work long hours in the cage.
“He’s fast and he’s confident,” Pulver said.
The five-foot-seven Pulver (22-8-1) is a hard-nosed pioneer who helped put the lighter weight classes on the map, fighting in both the UFC and Pride. After back-to-back UFC losses to Joe Lauzon and B.J. Penn in 2006 and 2007 — plus an appearance as a coach on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show — he switched to the WEC to revive his career at 145 pounds. The 33-year-old Pulver, who is 8-0 as a featherweight, choked out Cub Swanson in just 35 seconds in his WEC debut in December.
“He’s dangerous. I would say the most dangerous guy I’ve fought in that he can knock people out on a consistent basis,” said Faber.
Faber, who has surfer-dude good looks, recalls watching Pulver fight back in the day and imagining how he would fare against him.
“I think it’s just kind of destiny,” he said.
“I remember being a fan of Jens growing up,” he added. “And more and more as I watched tapes, I remembered why. It’s because he fights just like I do and that’s just passionate. It’s not about trying to eke out a win, it’s about trying to end the fight.”
The fight card at the Arco Arena (available on TSN or its alternate digital channel at 9 p.m. ET depending on whether the NBA Eastern final goes to Game 7) also features bantamweight champion Miguel Torres (against Japan’s Yoshiro Maeda) and former WEC title-holders (Razor) Rob McCullough and Chase Beebe. McCullough meets Kenneth Alexander in a lightweight bout while bantamweight Beebe tackles Will Ribeiro.
Light-heavyweight Mark Munoz, a former NCAA wrestling champion at Oklahoma State who is 3-0 as an MMA fighter, makes his WEC debut against Chuck Grigsby.
Faber is well aware of Pulver’s resume. But he doesn’t overthink it.
“I keep it primal. It is what it is. It’s a fight between two tough-assed dudes,” he said on a conference call.
Pulver says he plans to be patient, because in past fights the game plan has gone out the window in favour of “just blast and throw punches.”
“I’m going to enjoy the fight, man, I’m going to enjoy the moment,” he said. “I want to work my boxing, work my skills, work my punches, knees, clinch. … We’ll start on our feet and go from there.”
Pulver says fighting at 145 is where he should be when in “great shape.” As a lightweight (155), he was facing fighters who were dropping down from 180 pounds for the weigh-in and then regaining weight by fight time. His normal weight is 165.
Faber normally walks around at 154, but says he can clock 158 “after a big dinner.”
Pulver, who usually cuts a distinctive figure thanks to some creative hairdos, some remains a celebrity among fight fans. In Las Vegas for last weekend’s UFC 84 card, he was swamped by autograph-seekers every time he set foot in public.
Pulver’s road to success has been hard. When he was seven, his abusive father put a shotgun in his mouth and threatened to execute him and his two younger brothers.
“We tasted fear every morning, afternoon and night,” Pulver wrote in his 2003 autobiography “Little Evil: One Ultimate Fighter’s Rise to the Top.”
Pulver turned to sport for escape. Younger brother Dustin turned to crime. Last November he was sentenced to 50 years in jail in Oregon for robbery and sex charges.
“I lost my brother a long time ago,” Jens told The Canadian Press last October.
NOTES: UFC president Dana White said prior to UFC 83 in April that the WEC, which is owned by the UFC, would hand over its heavier weight classes and focus on the smaller divisions. But WEC vice-president Peter Dropick says there are no immediate plans for such a change. … Dropick says the WEC will stage a minimum of eight cards next year. … WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho is out of rehab in Brazil and doing well, says Dropick. “He’s just getting back into shape to fight. We’re just monitoring that and as soon as he’s ready, we’re going to welcome him back. Hopefully later this year he’ll be fighting.”
