The highest praise an interview can receive is when it changes your perspective on its subject. That’s the case with an excellent interview with Jens Pulver in the Seattle newspaper MMA blog where “Lil’ Evil” talks about the Pacific Northwest, his rough childhood, his devotion to Christianity and his love of video games along with his upcoming fight with Urijah Faber:

TK: You’ve been in some of the most memorable fights in MMA history, what’s the one that stands out most?
JP: My fight with Stephen Palling in Hawaii at 143 pounds. He hit like a ton of bricks (and was a local hero) and I knew how well he could strike. We just went toe to toe and whaled on each other like it was nobody’s business, it was insane. To this day afterwards, he and I are brothers. We left a part of our lives in that ring and the fans could see it. If you know Hawaii, you know you don’t just walk in there with some colored hair, big muscles and some cool shorts and automatically they’re going to love you. Those are some die hard fans and they’ve understood the sport for a long time. If you want to win them over, you have to do it one way and one way only; you’ve got to throw down. So I went out there and changed a lot of minds. To me, that was memorable because I won the hearts of their fans.

TK: I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never actually seen that fight.
JP: That’s the thing, most people haven’t. It wasn’t in a big building and it wasn’t for much money but we beat the living mess out of each other anyways. Again, I’m not fighting for money and I don’t make millions of dollars. I’m not a rich kid, but I’m rich in my heart and in my life. I do what I love and I’m having a blast doing it. I get to meet a lot of people just hanging out. There isn’t a certain monetary amount that can make this what it is; I just love what I’m doing. I just want Seattle to know that I’ll never forget where I came from ever.

Excellent interview that’s well worth the time to read in its entirety:

Lil’ Evil looking to do a lot of good @ Seattle Post Intelligencer MMA blog