ONE FC 8's Jens Pulver: 'Just to be able to work, I'm lucky'

There are pros and cons to getting older in MMA, and Jens Pulver is finding that out these days.

Pulver (27-17-1) next week meets Masakatsu Ueda (16-2-2) in a bantamweight tournament semifinal fight at “ONE FC 8: Kings and Champions.” At 38, Pulver is experiencing some of the rigors of a lifetime of training and fighting. But he also gets to do some globetrotting as his career starts to wind down.

ONE FC 5 takes place April 5 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Star Sports broadcasts the event in Asia, but it will be available elsewhere via online pay-per-view for $9.99.

“I have no injuries whatsoever, but my ankles and feet are tired,” Pulver recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “They’re road-worn.”

Pulver, who was the first lightweight champion in UFC history, said years of not cooling down properly after a workout and trying to fight through the twists and turns and sprains of ankles and feet are catching up to him now.

“The days of twisting my ankle and trying to throw on a pair of socks and shoes and kick through it, that can’t happen anymore,” he said. “Stretching is the smartest thing someone could do, but it’s got to be one of the most neglected things, at least in my world. After training, the last thing you want to do is sit there and stretch for 45 minutes – it’s time to go eat and sleep. So I’ve really learned to sit down and take the time to stretch and limber up the old bones. People always talk about the physical side, and for me, it’s my feet and my ankles. All those years of never icing it after you sprained it or whatever, I think that’s what caught up to me.”

Pulver will be looking for his first win streak in two years when he meets Ueda. In October, he took a decision from Ya Fei Zhao at ONE FC 6, his first win for the promotion after a TKO loss to Eric Kelly at ONE FC 4 in August.

Pulver endured a rough stretch of eight losses in nine fights, and five straight setbacks in the WEC before being released. Since then, he has gone 5-4, fighting at featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight.

It’s these deeper weight cuts that the former lightweight struggles with now. But the flip side is, he said he’s training better than he has in the past.

“This whole diet thing is weird,” Pulver said. “I’m on a clock. Every two hours my phone is going off: gotta eat this, gotta eat that. It’s driving me crazy. My whole life is sitting around the phone: Beep, time to train. Beep, time to eat. Beep, time to train. But I love it. I haven’t been dedicated like this in a long time. So it’s been a fun camp, absolutely.”

That dedication will include a lengthy trip to Singapore – a necessary evil for “Lil’ Evil” to be able to keep fighting for high-level promotions. And he believes ONE FC is one of those that is poised to do big things.

“They’re trying to build,” he said. “I remember PRIDE being real big, but this is Asia’s new big show. They treat everybody really well, and they’re just trying to get bigger and bigger. Most people are only used to the names that fight in the UFC or Bellator or something, and we don’t know about all these different fighters over there. There are a lot of dangerous cats over there. This is the big one for Asian MMA. They do the lights and do the show, and the crowd is definitely crazy. It’s pretty cool to be a part of it.

“And just to be able to work, I’m lucky.”

For more on ONE FC 8, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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