Pulver On Hatred For BJ, TUF 5 Incident [Pt. 1]

By MMANews.com

Jens "Little Evil" Pulver is a former UFC Lightweight champion and one of the coaches of the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show on Spike TV.

Sporting a 21-7-1 pro MMA record, Pulver holds a victory over his fellow coach of The Ultimate Fighter this season, the former UFC Welterweight champion B.J. Penn. The two have exchanged a war of words in the media since their meeting back in January of 2002 and fueled what UFC president calls the best season of TUF in show-history.

In the first installment of a two-part exclusive interview with MMANews.com's own Luis Cruz, Pulver discusses his self-admitted hatred for Penn and details an incident that occured during the first day of taping for the series, among other topics. Below is a transcript. Make sure to check back here at MMANews.com tomorrow for part two of this very exciting interview.

JENS PULVER INTERVIEW - PART ONE

Luis Cruz of MMANews.com: This is Luis Cruz and MMANews.com and I'm joined by one of the coaches of this season of The Ultimate Fighter, which is season five. He's the former UFC Lightweight champion, Jens Pulver. Jens, first of all thanks for taking the time to talk with us. How have you been?

Jens Pulver: Hey, I've been good and it's no problem. I've been good man, just admiring life. I'm real good. Right now I'm out here with Robbie Lawler and Matt Pena. Things have been great, things have been great. I'm just kind of waiting for the show to start [I'm a] little anxious, but I've been getting geared up and ready to fight pretty much since I got off the show. Everything's been alright.

MMANews.com: How's Robbie doing?

Jens Pulver: Good, good. He's grouchy ya know because he's losing his weight, but no Robbie Lawler's doing good. Real good. He's geared up - looking to fight. It's gonna be a fun little ordeal.

MMANews.com: Right. That fight is Saturday. Just wanted to remind everyone because that slipped my mind. It's this Saturday, March 31st on ProElite.com.

Jens Pulver: Yeah, it's gonna be a crazy fight. I'm expecting some fireworks. I think if we have our way, we get [Frank] Trigg out before he gets that takedown. We wanna put him in trouble right off the bat and use Robbie's power and his hand-speed to make him move backwards. It's gonna be fun.

MMANews.com: Should be a great fight. Alright before we get to The Ultimate Fighter - what are your thoughts on the current Lightweight champion, Sean Sherk?

Jens Pulver: Oh he's tough. I think he's one of those guys who's got a Matt Hughes kind of thing going for him as far as he's gonna be real tough to stop from ...you know he's gonna take you down. It's gonna be real hard to move once he's on top of you doing that ground and pound. He comes in shape and you're just gonna have to be in twice as good of shape to deal with all that wrestling, just to keep him off of you. I think if you wanna get your shots off in the stand-up, you're gonna have to wear him out like [Georges] St. Pierre did to him. St. Pierre made it impossible to take him down and then he started getting lit up. But at 155 [pounds] he's tough. He's tough, he's real tough. I mean more power to him, the bullseye is on him. He's got everybody gunning for him. A lot of people are getting ready to step up and fight him.

MMANews.com: Now I believe his rumored opponent is Hermes Franca, who's supposedly gonna fight him at UFC 72 on July 7th. What do you think of that match-up?

Jens Pulver: I think it's gonna be a good fight. I think Hermes Franca is a strong guy, he likes to throw bombs and he doesn't mind being on the ground, but again it's gonna come down to the same kind of thing - can he move underneath Sean Sherk? Can he move when Sean Sherk is in his guard trying to ground and pound? Can he move Sherk? If he can, Hermes is gonna give him a lot of trouble. If he can get himself in that kind of shape to do all the moving he's gonna have to be doing to keep the fight going. You just can't let Sean Sherk sit on you. That's all there is to it. So it's gonna be a tough fight but I like that one for Hermes. The guy has a big right hand, he throws it with just extreme abandon. I think it's a good fight, I think Hermes is a good opponent and a real good test. Absolutely.

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