brutus
08-29-2008, 04:51 AM
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Jens Pulver remembers consulting with a “shrink” and laughing in the guy’s face when the so-called expert tried to psychoanalyze him.
“I hated it,” Pulver said of those one-on-one sessions.
But Pulver admits that he has been working with a sports psychologist before his upcoming Sept. 10 fight against Leonard Garcia.
“It’s a lady,” Pulver said by telephone in Iowa, where he trains. “I’ve been seeing her for four weeks.”
What do the two of you talk about?
“Hey, hey, hey, that’s confidential,” Pulver said. “That’s between me and my shrink, son. I’m a project because I’m so mentally whacked.”
Although it’s natural to presume that Pulver’s recent loss to WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber traumatized Pulver and drove him to see a sports psychologist, Pulver maintains that isn’t so. The grueling five-rounder with Faber left him physically feeling “like ****,” Pulver said, but the setback did not inflict any emotional scars. Moreover, the 32-year-old MMA pioneer said he does not base his life happiness on wins and losses inside of the cage. In fact, success and having his hand raised has always had a funny way of haunting the former UFC champion.
“If things are going well, I’m going to wreck it – believe this. You know what I mean? If things are going well, I’m going to destroy it, one way or another I’m going to do something that will get me back in my turmoil spot,” Pulver said of his history of self-sabotage. “Like I said, I grew up abused, whacked on, hurt, confused. When you live in fear in your own home throughout your entire childhood, you’re always expecting the other shoe to drop. Every day something good might happen but you’re just waiting for the explosion. You know what I mean?
“When a fight is over, I go home and back to reality. And then the depression thing all starts up again. So the safest place for me is that cage and training. At least I can take my mind and go somewhere else. But after the fighting and training is over you’re sitting there going, ‘Now what do I do?’”
Which is why, soon after the one-sided loss to Faber, Pulver was eager to jump right back in the gym and schedule another opponent. But due to the punishment he’d absorbed against Faber, Pulver faced a 180-day medical suspension. Six months on the shelf. Doctors saw the extreme swelling around one of his eyes and feared he had suffered a broken eye socket. They presumed he had a broken nose, too. And Pulver also injured his elbow badly. Determined to avoid the suspension, Pulver underwent a battery of tests, including three CAT scans. Tests revealed the eye socket was OK, and the nose wasn’t really broken, there was just some cracked cartilage. So he was cleared to fight, paving the way for his showdown with Garcia.
“Physically I felt OK,” Pulver said, referring to the day after the Faber fight. “I knew I was in a war. I was stiff, I was sore, I was sad that I lost. I looked like junk, I looked like ****, but I smiled. Overall I was fine. I gave 110 percent, no ifs, ands or buts, so it was hard to hang my head. I gave everything I had. You can’t feel bad about that. I went five rounds with the quote unquote ‘best fighter in the world at 145.’ Alright, cool. Did I want to win? ****, yeah. But what does this fight coming up mean to me? It means getting back at it.”
As was the case against Faber, Pulver anticipates another slugfest with Garcia. Both Pulver and Garcia are cut from the same cloth as boxer Arturo Gatti. It doesn’t matter what strategy they come into the fight with, at heart each man is a banger. So if the best blueprint for victory involves trying to outgrapple their opponent, or to outbox him by sticking and moving, one heated exchange could easily flip a switch in Pulver or Garcia, causing each man to revert back to his true brawling self.
“You know me, once I get punched all skills go out the window, it’s time to throw down a little bit and see what happens,” said Pulver (22-9-1). “I’ll throw down until the lights get turned off, one way or the other, whether it’s mine or his. Somebody’s lights are getting turned off. I don’t know any better. I’m not out to fight for myself any more. At one point I used to be scared, ‘Oh if I lose I’ll lose my career.’ I don’t care about that. I’m just out there
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to fight, man. Do I want to fight smarter? Yeah, some day. Did the sport kind of pass me by, in one aspect for sure. But I’m going to fight the way I fight. The fans are going to get something every time I do.”
What does Pulver, who has trained for years with Pat Miletich’s team, mean when he says the sport may have passed him by? And why does he make so many jokes and references about being old, even though he’s just 32? How much longer does he envision himself fighting?
“I feel it every day,” he said, referring to his age and the fact that injuries take much longer to heal. “I’ll know it’s time to quit when I just don’t feel like training anymore, when I don’t feel like getting punched any more. When I started talking more about training people, and getting them more ready for fights than getting myself ready, then I know it’s time. But I feel phenomenal. The only thing I feel right now is a little outdated. I feel like an old car, an old classic. I just got to get caught up a little bit. I fell behind in the evolution of MMA. Physically I feel great. I think I showed that in 25 minutes against Urijah. Yeah, I might have been a step shower than Urijah but Urijah’s fast! Can I fight all day? Absolutely, I’ll go all day, I’ll fight all day long.
“He surprised me with his speed, for sure. He was fast. What really surprised me was when I thought I did have him hurt – I don’t care what he says, I know I had him hurt a couple times – but he would throw something off the wall, like a good poker face. I couldn’t tell if he was fooling with me or not. So I’d sit back into my rhythm rather than try to put him away. I’m like ‘Well, OK, maybe he’s not as hurt as I think he is, maybe I’m misreading him.”
In Pulver’s mind, three flaws cost him the fight against Faber. Pulver also hinted at what strategy he might adopt against Garcia (15-3).
“I made three mistakes in that fight that ultimately got me beat,” Pulver said. “First thing, I followed him around. Second, I never closed the distance with anything, I just walked in and I didn’t lead with my hands. Third, when I backed out, I never backed out with anything. When the clinches were over, I didn’t throw, I didn’t fire. When I did have him hurt, I didn’t try to finish him. Those are the three things. It didn’t have to do with age or anything else, it’s just reaction times. I got too one-dimensional. I’m just realizing my mistakes. Now I want to get back out there and it’s time to be fast, elusive, and inside-outside – basically the same way I got beat.”
More than anything, more than a world championship belt, Pulver is chasing a peace with his past. He’s lost three of his past four fights – succumbing to B.J. Penn and Urijah Faber, two of the top fighters in the world, and Joe Lauzon. But Pulver remains a widely respected figure. Time and again he has fought the best. Fighting showed fans Pulver is talented and extraordinarily brave. It revealed something else to the fighter, something about his incredible resilience.
“It’s taught me that I’m a cockroach, man. I’ll survive a **** nuclear holocaust, I’ll survive anything,” Pulver said.
He believes life outside the cage is changing for the better. Happiness, which has eluded him for so long, is his latest discovery.
“I’m going to keep on going,” he said. “I’m hands down in the middle of the happiest time of my life right now. I’m loving it. I have solid friends, a happy, quiet home life and the right kind of people talking inside of my head. I’ve got the right coaches. I’m happy. I realize how fast the first half of my career went and I don’t want the second half to go without appreciating it a little more. I’m pretty **** thankful that I got the chance to fight.
“I’m old, I have a son on the way, I have a 5-year-old little girl named Maddie. That’s why I’m trying to learn how to be a different person. I don’t ever want them to feel that if something good happens to them then they have to get scared, because they know something bad is about to happen to them. I’m learning how to pat myself on the back and say, ‘Cool, you know what, you deserve this, be happy with where you’re at. You worked hard.’ I’m learning not to say things to myself that I wouldn’t let other people say to me. I’m going to keep smiling.”
I'm a pulver fan and i believe this next fight with garcia will be a **** of a match.
Jens Pulver remembers consulting with a “shrink” and laughing in the guy’s face when the so-called expert tried to psychoanalyze him.
“I hated it,” Pulver said of those one-on-one sessions.
But Pulver admits that he has been working with a sports psychologist before his upcoming Sept. 10 fight against Leonard Garcia.
“It’s a lady,” Pulver said by telephone in Iowa, where he trains. “I’ve been seeing her for four weeks.”
What do the two of you talk about?
“Hey, hey, hey, that’s confidential,” Pulver said. “That’s between me and my shrink, son. I’m a project because I’m so mentally whacked.”
Although it’s natural to presume that Pulver’s recent loss to WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber traumatized Pulver and drove him to see a sports psychologist, Pulver maintains that isn’t so. The grueling five-rounder with Faber left him physically feeling “like ****,” Pulver said, but the setback did not inflict any emotional scars. Moreover, the 32-year-old MMA pioneer said he does not base his life happiness on wins and losses inside of the cage. In fact, success and having his hand raised has always had a funny way of haunting the former UFC champion.
“If things are going well, I’m going to wreck it – believe this. You know what I mean? If things are going well, I’m going to destroy it, one way or another I’m going to do something that will get me back in my turmoil spot,” Pulver said of his history of self-sabotage. “Like I said, I grew up abused, whacked on, hurt, confused. When you live in fear in your own home throughout your entire childhood, you’re always expecting the other shoe to drop. Every day something good might happen but you’re just waiting for the explosion. You know what I mean?
“When a fight is over, I go home and back to reality. And then the depression thing all starts up again. So the safest place for me is that cage and training. At least I can take my mind and go somewhere else. But after the fighting and training is over you’re sitting there going, ‘Now what do I do?’”
Which is why, soon after the one-sided loss to Faber, Pulver was eager to jump right back in the gym and schedule another opponent. But due to the punishment he’d absorbed against Faber, Pulver faced a 180-day medical suspension. Six months on the shelf. Doctors saw the extreme swelling around one of his eyes and feared he had suffered a broken eye socket. They presumed he had a broken nose, too. And Pulver also injured his elbow badly. Determined to avoid the suspension, Pulver underwent a battery of tests, including three CAT scans. Tests revealed the eye socket was OK, and the nose wasn’t really broken, there was just some cracked cartilage. So he was cleared to fight, paving the way for his showdown with Garcia.
“Physically I felt OK,” Pulver said, referring to the day after the Faber fight. “I knew I was in a war. I was stiff, I was sore, I was sad that I lost. I looked like junk, I looked like ****, but I smiled. Overall I was fine. I gave 110 percent, no ifs, ands or buts, so it was hard to hang my head. I gave everything I had. You can’t feel bad about that. I went five rounds with the quote unquote ‘best fighter in the world at 145.’ Alright, cool. Did I want to win? ****, yeah. But what does this fight coming up mean to me? It means getting back at it.”
As was the case against Faber, Pulver anticipates another slugfest with Garcia. Both Pulver and Garcia are cut from the same cloth as boxer Arturo Gatti. It doesn’t matter what strategy they come into the fight with, at heart each man is a banger. So if the best blueprint for victory involves trying to outgrapple their opponent, or to outbox him by sticking and moving, one heated exchange could easily flip a switch in Pulver or Garcia, causing each man to revert back to his true brawling self.
“You know me, once I get punched all skills go out the window, it’s time to throw down a little bit and see what happens,” said Pulver (22-9-1). “I’ll throw down until the lights get turned off, one way or the other, whether it’s mine or his. Somebody’s lights are getting turned off. I don’t know any better. I’m not out to fight for myself any more. At one point I used to be scared, ‘Oh if I lose I’ll lose my career.’ I don’t care about that. I’m just out there
ad
to fight, man. Do I want to fight smarter? Yeah, some day. Did the sport kind of pass me by, in one aspect for sure. But I’m going to fight the way I fight. The fans are going to get something every time I do.”
What does Pulver, who has trained for years with Pat Miletich’s team, mean when he says the sport may have passed him by? And why does he make so many jokes and references about being old, even though he’s just 32? How much longer does he envision himself fighting?
“I feel it every day,” he said, referring to his age and the fact that injuries take much longer to heal. “I’ll know it’s time to quit when I just don’t feel like training anymore, when I don’t feel like getting punched any more. When I started talking more about training people, and getting them more ready for fights than getting myself ready, then I know it’s time. But I feel phenomenal. The only thing I feel right now is a little outdated. I feel like an old car, an old classic. I just got to get caught up a little bit. I fell behind in the evolution of MMA. Physically I feel great. I think I showed that in 25 minutes against Urijah. Yeah, I might have been a step shower than Urijah but Urijah’s fast! Can I fight all day? Absolutely, I’ll go all day, I’ll fight all day long.
“He surprised me with his speed, for sure. He was fast. What really surprised me was when I thought I did have him hurt – I don’t care what he says, I know I had him hurt a couple times – but he would throw something off the wall, like a good poker face. I couldn’t tell if he was fooling with me or not. So I’d sit back into my rhythm rather than try to put him away. I’m like ‘Well, OK, maybe he’s not as hurt as I think he is, maybe I’m misreading him.”
In Pulver’s mind, three flaws cost him the fight against Faber. Pulver also hinted at what strategy he might adopt against Garcia (15-3).
“I made three mistakes in that fight that ultimately got me beat,” Pulver said. “First thing, I followed him around. Second, I never closed the distance with anything, I just walked in and I didn’t lead with my hands. Third, when I backed out, I never backed out with anything. When the clinches were over, I didn’t throw, I didn’t fire. When I did have him hurt, I didn’t try to finish him. Those are the three things. It didn’t have to do with age or anything else, it’s just reaction times. I got too one-dimensional. I’m just realizing my mistakes. Now I want to get back out there and it’s time to be fast, elusive, and inside-outside – basically the same way I got beat.”
More than anything, more than a world championship belt, Pulver is chasing a peace with his past. He’s lost three of his past four fights – succumbing to B.J. Penn and Urijah Faber, two of the top fighters in the world, and Joe Lauzon. But Pulver remains a widely respected figure. Time and again he has fought the best. Fighting showed fans Pulver is talented and extraordinarily brave. It revealed something else to the fighter, something about his incredible resilience.
“It’s taught me that I’m a cockroach, man. I’ll survive a **** nuclear holocaust, I’ll survive anything,” Pulver said.
He believes life outside the cage is changing for the better. Happiness, which has eluded him for so long, is his latest discovery.
“I’m going to keep on going,” he said. “I’m hands down in the middle of the happiest time of my life right now. I’m loving it. I have solid friends, a happy, quiet home life and the right kind of people talking inside of my head. I’ve got the right coaches. I’m happy. I realize how fast the first half of my career went and I don’t want the second half to go without appreciating it a little more. I’m pretty **** thankful that I got the chance to fight.
“I’m old, I have a son on the way, I have a 5-year-old little girl named Maddie. That’s why I’m trying to learn how to be a different person. I don’t ever want them to feel that if something good happens to them then they have to get scared, because they know something bad is about to happen to them. I’m learning how to pat myself on the back and say, ‘Cool, you know what, you deserve this, be happy with where you’re at. You worked hard.’ I’m learning not to say things to myself that I wouldn’t let other people say to me. I’m going to keep smiling.”
I'm a pulver fan and i believe this next fight with garcia will be a **** of a match.