After his WEC 41 loss to Josh Grispy, Jens Pulver gave a heart felt speech which very closely resembled a retirement speech. Many people feel that Jens Pulver has had his time and believe that he may be hanging around too long. At the end of the day though, there are often more real issues regarding a fighter’s retirement than the simple fact that they like to fight. These guys fight for a living, and if you have been paying your own bills over the last couple years, you will know that it is not cheap to live. While some fighters have been able to pull down some very serious dough, many great fighters don’t make that much money. This can be seen if you look at the payouts from WEC 41. At the end of the day, fighting is a meal ticket for Pulver. He has got to eat and he has got to feed his family. Just because he may feel like his prime is over, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still have real world responsibilities in the form of bills!
Jens Pulver Quote via Fightlinker:
“You guys have to understand, I don’t make six figures a year. You see me on TV, that don’t mean squat,” said Pulver, who banked just over $30,000 for his efforts on Sunday. “This is my job. My house is $156,000 living in Iowa. I got a 1999 Rodeo. Right now I gotta fight because that’s my job. This is the field I want to be in. The keyboard warriors, they’ll write me off and say ‘he’s done, he’s done.’ But I just sat there with all the fans of Sacramento and they all pretty much told me ‘you’re not done.’”
I think it sucks if Pulver has to fight to keep the lights on, but something tells me this guy likes to fight. I think you have to, to be at his level. Without a doubt, Pulver is one of the greats and likely still has a little juice left in him. The questions is whether or not he can harness that power again for a few more fights so he can go out a winner, with a little more dough in his pocket.
