It wasn’t supposed to be Jens Pulver.
When the UFC lightweight division — known as the bantamweight division at the time — was established in 2001, the new owners of the promotion had initially targeted their trainer as the most likely candidate to compete in the first championship fight for the weight class.
Three months before Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta along with their friend Dana White purchased the UFC for $2 million from the struggling promoters at SEG, the trio were really just combat sports enthusiasts who had fallen in love with mixed martial arts.