No More "Evil": Jens Pulver Released From The WEC

Earlier today, speculation over the future of Jens "Lil' Evil" Pulver in the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion had finally come to an end.

While the speculation was that Pulver's return would be in a color commentating capacity, Dana White confirmed at Saturday's post-UFC 114 press conference that Pulver would neither be commentating nor would he be putting the gloves on.

As Fanhouse MMA reports:

"He has been released," White said. "We had talked about Jens being a part of the WEC somehow, but he's not broadcasting."

As for Jens Pulver himself, he mentions his current mindset given his recent five-fight losing streak.

"On the record, you can tell the whole world this: I love the UFC, I love the WEC, I love Zuffa," Pulver said. "But I'm 0-5 (in my last five fights), so I get it. I'm a fighter. Fact is, I've been around a lot longer than these guys today, and I don't make as much money as them. I'm 0-5, and that's something I've got to fix with me —but I can't take a year off to work on it. I've gotta fight."

Obvious to me is the fact that Jens realizes that a fighter can only go for so long on a losing streak before his company decides that he has to go. No doubt that Jens will keep fighting anywhere he can until he feels that he can give one more strong fight to the fans of the WEC and possibly the UFC.

The fact that Jens is willing to keep fighting and fighting until he resolves the mistakes that served as detriments in the past five of his fights shows me, personally, that even though Jens has had a rough outing recently, he's not willing to make excuses for what happened in any of those fights.

Making excuses doesn't make a case for a fighter. It only throws their character into question.

Though it would have been nice to see Jens lend his expertise as a fighter through the commentary circuit, at least fans of the man and the fighter can feel satisfaction in knowing one definite fact:

The UFC lightweight pioneer is far from done with the fight game.

For those who may not be familiar with this man, Jens "Lil' Evil" Pulver was the inaugural UFC Lightweight Champion, defeating Caol Uno by a majority decision at UFC 30 back in 2001. He is the first person ever to defeat BJ Penn at lightweight.

After a defeat at the hands of Joe Lauzon, Penn would avenge his loss to Pulver by defeating him at "The Ultimate Fighter 5" Finale by way of a second round rear naked choke.

After the loss to BJ Penn, Jens made public his intention to move down to the WEC's featherweight division.

After the move to featherweight, Pulver was able to sink in an anaconda choke on Cub Swanson just thirty-five seconds into the first round of his debut at WEC 31.

The win would be his only victory in the WEC, however, as losses to Josh Grispi, Leonard Garcia, Javier Vasquez, and two losses to Urijah Faber would follow.

After his most recent loss to Javier Vasquez, the speculation began as to whether Jens Pulver would continue to fight or if he would be in a commentating capacity.

Dana White's announcement at the UFC 114 post-fight press conference this Saturday silenced the speculation by saying that although there were talks of putting Jens in another capacity, he would not be lending his own expertise of the sport through a microphone.

This recent bit of new now poses the question: Where will Jens go next?

Should Jens have been released, or do you think he should stay in the WEC? Let me hear what you think about this recent announcement. Leave a comment or a message in my inbox with what you think the right move is concerning Jens "Lil' Evil" Pulver and the WEC.