Book About Kids With Disabilities- Former UFC champ raises money for individuals with disabilities
We’ve all seen news stories on TV of professional athletes committing crimes or demonstrating other reprehensible behavior. We’ve also read about multi-millionaire professional athletes charging their fans $50 or $100 to sign an autograph or demanding $20,000 or $50,000 or more to make a brief appearance at a charitable event. Well, here’s a story of a professional athlete that you’d never hear.
That is, until now.
Jens Pulver is a former world champion fighter with an amazing back story. It’s well-documented that Jens grew up with an alcoholic father in an abusive home environment few people could ever imagine. While this upbringing would break most people and turn them toward a life of drugs and crime, prison and death, Jens refused to be broken. Instead, he survived his childhood abuse, corralled his demons, and unleashed them first onto the wrestling mats where he became a two-time state high school wrestling champion in Washington, and later in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) where Jens became the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight world champion.
But Jens Pulver is much more than just an accomplished wrestler and world champion fighter and survivor of childhood abuse. He’s a college graduate (Boise State University), coach, trainer, businessman, TV commentator, world traveler, role model, husband, father, humanitarian, mentor, and motivational speaker beloved by millions of fans around the world—all while managing on a daily basis his lifelong condition of anxiety and bipolar depression.
Jens Pulver’s image is seared into video games, t-shirts, collectable trading cards, action figures, athletic gear, and the minds of his fans around the globe. Two award-winning books and one documentary film have chronicled his incredible life. Yet despite all of this personal and professional achievement, he’s one the most grounded and humble people ever.
More than any of his accomplishments listed above, Jens broke the cycle of abuse—by far his life’s greatest achievement.
One of my favorite athletes of all-time, I reached out to Jens to see if he’d be interested in headlining a fundraiser benefiting individuals with disabilities. In a short time he got back to me with his answer: Yes.
My wife and I first met Jens when he and his friend and business partner, Tim, arrived at our home where they’d stay while Jens was in town to headline the charity event. While other athletes would have demanded first class airfare and five-star hotel accommodations costing the company thousands, Jens donated his time to the cause and flew coach from Iowa, agreeing to stay in my two-star, 210-year-old home, all to save the nonprofit money.
When Jens stepped out from the car in his customized, red Team Pulver jacket, I was in awe of him. There was something special about Jens beyond the obvious cauliflower ears and flattened face typical of veteran prize-fighters that was hard to describe. He greeted my wife and me like we were old friends. Later this night, my wife and I took Jens and Tim out to dinner. I had arranged for a private room to dine in, to avoid any knuckleheads wanting to challenge Jens to a fight. (Sports fans used to challenge six-foot-five, two-hundred-seventy-pound Charles Barkley to fights when Sir Charles played in the NBA, so if the behemoth Barkley was a target, five-foot-seven, one-hundred-sixty-pound Jens could be, too.)
A few minutes after we sat, word had circulated throughout the restaurant that a former UFC world champion was eating there. This prompted diners and workers to peek into the private room. The peeks then turned into cautious approaches with requests for a picture or an autograph.
Without blinking an eye, Jens put down his utensils, wiped his mouth with his napkin, shifted in his chair and shook someone’s hand and talked to the person for a few minutes—not caring that his warm food was cooling or that his cool drink was warming. He obliged all autograph and photograph requests with the fans, as well. Repeat this process several times with many people during the course of a few hours over dinner. Jens never once complained about being interrupted and fulfilled each request with a smile, a firm handshake, and good old chatter. Each fan was absolutely blown away that Jens was as nice as he was.
The next morning I had organized a book signing with Jens and Tim at a local coffee shop. Tim had recently authored a book about Jens Pulver overcoming abuse as a child at the hands of his father to achieve both athletic success and life peace. The coffee shop was teeming with people wanting to get a chance to meet the former world champion fighter and subject of two award-winning books, who also appeared on the recent hit Spike TV reality show The Ultimate Fighter (Season 5).
Jens greeted each person with respect, signed autographs, took photos, and gave each person all the time they wanted, laughing and regaling them with stories. Each and every person walked away from Jens acting as if they’d met a new best friend.
I saved the best for last.
A week before the fundraiser, a woman called me to buy two tickets to meet Jens, as her twelve-year-old disabled son is a big fan of Jens and wanted to meet his idol. She informed me that her ex-husband had been abusive to her son and that her son was recently inspired how Jens overcame abuse of his own as a child at the hands of his father. When the boy met Jens at the fundraiser, he and his mom shared a private talk with Jens about the boy’s home situation.
Standing nearby, I could see Jens was moved by his interaction with the boy.
After carefully listening and offering advice to the boy, Jens took off from his own back his custom Team Pulver jacket with his name inscribed on it and handed it to the kid. Caught off guard, the boy accepted the gift with mouth open and eyebrows raised. After giving him the jacket, Jens suddenly got on his cell phone and made a call. Thinking Jens was done speaking with them, the boy and his mother thanked Jens and began walking away. Still on the phone, Jens called out to them to come back.
They did.
Jens ended the call and told the boy and his mother that he just got off the phone with Dana White—the president of the UFC—and they now had two front row tickets (a $2,400 value) to a live UFC event held nearby and that Jens would see them both there. Both the boy and his mother were rendered speechless.
At six-feet-two, I towered over the five-foot-seven Jens Pulver in height. However, after witnessing three days of his constant acts of kindness and selflessness, I felt like the much smaller man.
The fundraiser was a magical night. Jens warmly greeted each guest as if they were his friends, taking photos with guests, signing autographs, and swapping stories.
To have an opportunity to meet the charismatic Jens Pulver, people drove far and wide and shared stories of their own about how Jens inspired them in their lives.
I’m not an emotional guy, joking that I only cry once a month when I pay the bills. Yet, when I stood on stage during one of the raffles of the night and I peered out into the sea of people—kids in wheelchairs dancing to the music, teens with Down syndrome having their pictures taken with Jens, children with other disabilities getting their faces painted, parents connecting with other parents, and attendees laughing and smiling—those sights made me overcome with emotion. It was an awesome sight to behold.
As far as the business bottom line: A total of two-hundred-forty-two people attended the event and $18,240 was raised for the nonprofit company—nearly three times more than the nonprofit had ever previously raised through a single event.
That’s the power of Jens Pulver.
For more stories on Jens Pulver, other UFC champions and one of the greatest Major League Baseball players of all-time headlining fundraisers benefiting individuals with disabilities, visit www.specialstoriesbook.com to learn about the new book, “Special Stories: Short Stories On Youth With Disabilities And My Adventures Working In The Disabilities Field” by Mike Kelly (2017, Vendue Books)
Jens Pulver photo credit: Ogy Blazevic
