2. Jens Pulver vs Kenji Arai
By the time of this fight, Pulver had been gone from the UFC for four years. He had spoiled the company’s plans to showcase BJ Penn has the ultimate lightweight fighter, by defeating him at UFC 35. It was Pulver’s 2nd title defence. Then Pulver left the company, vacated the lightweight belt and by 2004 found himself fighting in Pride.
Things had not started how Pulver wanted in Pride however, as he dropped 2 of his first 3 fights. This fight was an opportunity for him to show everyone that the old Jens Pulver, the one who had defeated BJ Penn, still existed.
Unfortunately for Pulver, while he was dominant here, the rest of his career after this was pretty terrible. He would go 7W-13L in his final 20 fights.
