On his departure from MMA's center stage, the Lightweight pioneer said, “They (Zuffa) let me go but deservedly so. I'm the one that failed and I'm the one that lost."

Message boards, journalists, and even other fighters figured Pulver would be calling it quits, but he feels they jumped to a conclusion. “A lot of people were just saying, ‘You’re done’. The reality is - Am I done fighting the big boys on the big shows? Sure I am. But people made a mistake when they said I was done altogether. I wasn't taking very much damage in any of those fights I lost. I took more damage in the 25 minutes with [Urijah] Faber than I did when I got knocked out. I'm not slow or punchy. I decide when I'm done, not the other people. When a medic wakes me up with an oxygen mask five minutes after a fight and has to tell me what happened then we'll see but getting caught in an arm bar - I never was a grappler anyway. That doesn't mean I'm done.”

At 36 years old, age isn’t on the former champion’s side. Not everyone can be Randy Couture and fight (for what at least appears to be) forever. Evolution has been one of the keys to this young sport, something that “Lil’ Evil” understands and is trying every day. “I'm learning to evolve just like everybody else. I don't know if the game has evolved so much as kids these days are growing up on this stuff. People are still getting punched and submitted but people are way more well-rounded now because they grew up with it. I was in college when MMA started. Kids these days are in elementary school with this stuff. There are amateur fights these days. My amateur fights were fighting for free on whatever show I could find so I could make tapes to send promoters. Nowadays is the second wave we paved for the new school fighters."