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#3 Jens Pulver
A genuine UFC legend, Jens Pulver won the UFC’s inaugural Lightweight title back in 2001 by outpointing Caol Uno, and went on to defend it successfully on two occasions over top contenders Dennis Hallman and BJ Penn. A contract dispute in 2002 forced him out of the UFC, but after some moderate success in PRIDE, ‘Little Evil’ returned in 2006 and was matched with Joe Lauzon.
A knockout loss to ‘J-Lau’ stunned everyone and was considered one of the year’s bigger upsets, but at just 31 it was widely thought that he had plenty more in the tank, and so the UFC booked him as a coach on the 5th season of The Ultimate Fighter against his old rival Penn, with a fight between the two booked for the Finale.
Penn choked out Pulver in that fight, and the loss was enough of a catalyst for ‘Little Evil’ to drop to 145lbs, moving to the UFC’s sister promotion the WEC in the process. His first fight went well – he submitted Cub Swanson in just 23 seconds – and that was enough to earn him a shot at WEC Featherweight champ Urijah Faber in one of the promotion’s first true marquee fights.
Pulver was outpointed by ‘The California Kid’ in that fight, but it was after this that his slide truly began. Losses to Leonard Garcia, Faber in a rematch and finally Josh Grispi left him without a win in nearly 2 years, and fans began to call for his retirement. One more WEC loss – a bad showing against Javier Vazquez – followed, and it appeared that Pulver was ready to retire after the promotion let him go.
Incredibly though, ‘Little Evil’ hung on for another 3 years following his loss to Vazquez, losing 6 of his 11 fights to end his career with a disappointing record of 27-19-1. Realistically, Pulver carried on for far too long, and should’ve retired in the WEC.
