Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
The Breakdown: The fistic life has been tough on Jens Pulver and Javier Vazquez lately. Pulver hasn’t won a fight in more than two years, and Vazquez is coming off heartbreaking back-to-back split decision losses. The difference here is that Vazquez has at least proved he still belongs in the cage while Pulver is looking more and more like someone fighting a losing battle with the hourglass.
All Pulver has left is a bench-pressing left hook and a fading set of skills while Vazquez can still rely on his Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling game, which make for an uninspiring but undeniably effective style. Making matters worse for Pulver is that his sprawl isn’t what it used to be, and his punching power is weakened by the fact that his chin has become an issue of late and forces him to be cautious to the point that it paralyzes his entire offense.
Once upon a time this would be a cut and dry win for Pulver, but watching his recent struggles paints a clear picture and it looks about as nice as the picture of Dorian Gray. Barring some sort of pre-fight total brain spasm from Vazquez that convinces him to go the George Chuvalo route, he’s going to take Pulver down and that will be most of the work he needs to do to scratch out a W.
The Bottom Line: Expect Vazquez to take a lopsided, albeit boring, decision.