Pulver pauses, then laughs when recalling his fights with Faber, when “The California Kid” was nothing but respectful to him. And beat him twice.
“I think Uriah Faber figured out that if you just treat him with respect and just go out there and fight him, you can beat him,” laughed Pulver. “But if you go out there and you insult him, and you make him think he’s being belittled like his dad used to do to him when he was a kid, oh, hell no, you don’t want that. Just so don’t do that to him.”
It’s a hard way to get to be great, but if it was easy, there would be no place for halls of fame in sports because everyone would be on the same level playing field. But fighting through an abusive childhood, leaving everything behind to chase a dream in a sport few took seriously at the time, and in a weight class that didn’t even exist in the UFC, that takes someone special, someone like Pulver, a native of Sunnyside, Washington, who had his doubts like anyone else. He just ignored them, and in September of 1999, took a 3-1 pro MMA record into the UFC and a fight against Alfonso Alcarez. Ruled a draw after two five-minute rounds, Pulver didn’t sulk; he got back to work.
Preview Every Fight At UFC 290
Three knockout wins in early 2000 earned him a return call to the Octagon, where he decisioned Joao Roque at UFC 26, and by November of that year, he was 5-1 (the only loss coming against Din Thomas) and facing highly touted John Lewis at UFC 28. Eleven seconds later, a star was born.
Of course, it wasn’t that simple, as Pulver was still dealing with the after-effects of the heel hook Thomas caught him with three months earlier. Pulver had no intention of pulling out of the fight, though, not one this big, one that was the first under the unified rules of mixed martial arts, and two events away from Zuffa buying the UFC.
