Jens Pulver reacts to emotional UFC Hall of Fame induction: “It’s exactly like winning the world title.”
The first UFC lightweight champion is finally being inducted into the Hall of Fame. At UFC 284, it was announced that Jens Pulver would be the latest inductee into the 2023 UFC Hall of Fame.
During an appearance on The MMA Hour, Pulver described the feeling of gaining MMA immortality.
“It’s exactly like winning the world title because I still don’t believe it. It still hasn’t really sunk in,” Pulver said. “I never knew if this would happen. It means everything to me cause this is such a rare moment and it’s been building up every year.”
Pulver won the inaugural UFC lightweight title at UFC 30 in February 2021. He went on to defend the title twice. He was also a head coach on The Ultimate Fighter season 5.
Twitch “Changed Everything” For Jens Pulver
“Lil Evil” admits that 3 years ago he wasn’t ready for a revamped relationship with fighting. He credits Twitch streaming for rejuvenating his passion for mixed martial arts.
The 48-year-old leads UFC’s Twitch channel. He is joined by multiple guests each week.
“I’m glad that it [took so long]…Two, three years ago, I would’ve told you f**k no,” Pulver said. “That UFC Twitch stream… changed everything for me. It gave me worth, it gave me value…The fact that people would come into this chat just to sit there and talk to me on the stream. I was like ‘this is unreal’ so I finally was happy where I was at in life and I didnt need fighting anymore. I finally moved on from fighting.”
