http://thislovelymachine.com/screeningroom/2010/10/a-driven-preview/ Jens Pulver, former UFC Lightweight Champion of the World, is one of the most recognizable MMA fighters of the past two decades. He escaped an abusive childhood to have great success as a professional athlete. Now at the end of his career he's barely hanging onto his dream, fighting for paycheques, and trying to be a good family man. Safe to assume this is a worthwhile watch.
damn I am a huge fan of Jens Pulver. Seems like a very good person and I wish him nothing but the best. it's sad to me to see the sport evolve past the skills of Jens and to see a Legend like Fedor get dominated by a mediocre fighter. I hope he's able to walk away from the sport soon because I'd hate to see him get KO'd excessively.
Just finished watching the doc. It is important, I think, to get glimpses like this into the lives of these fighters. I think when you watch enough MMA you get a little jaded. You can love the sport and enjoy it but also not really look at each fighter as a person so much as a win-loss record or as a highlight reel or whatever. Jens is very real. As for the film itself it is good to get an inside look at Jens' life but I miss hearing other people speak about him. Like "Tyson", Jens narrates the film himself and he's on camera pretty much the entire time. Unlike Tyson there are basically no photos or videos of Jens as a child or young man, no footage of fights or wrestling, no interviews with anyone, and next to no celebration of his career in the UFC--I assume because the UFC wouldn't release archival footage or photographs. Kind of glaring for all of that to be left out.
Something I learned from the documentary is that fighters need to weigh-in multiple times during the week, not just the day before the fight on UFC.com. When they arrive they weigh-in with Burt Watson, then early in the morning the day before the fight they have another pre-weigh-in to see how close they are to their target weight. I realize some guys stop sweating and can't cut anymore weight but it seems that the UFC does everything it can to make sure these guys are on, meaning there are few excuses for weight missers.
