I believe Robert Emerson would be a perfect replacement if Cole can not compete. Emerson fought Jens Pulver in his debute. He took the fight on a weeks notice because Pulver had recently beaten BJ Penn in the UFC and no one would accept a fight against him.
Emerson has lost some tough fights on short notice... He lost several DECESIONS, some of which had favorable hometown judges scoring the fight!! His DECESION losses include...Pride vet Dokonjonosuke Mishima, BJJ BB and former KOTC champ Javier Vazquez, UFC vet and TUF champion Melvin Guillard (fight took place at 165lbs),PPV KOTC ranked fighter Randy Velarde (fight took place at 170lbs).
Several of those losses have been at 170lbs. Emerson would provide an explosive rematch with Pulver. Emerson has wins over Joe Camacho, and Chris Brennan
Robert Emerson fought on the last Total Combat card...the 1st sanctioned MMA bouts in SOCAL and destroyed RITC superfight vet and collegiate wrestler Jamie Schmidt...I'm sure he would be a formidable opponent
theres now ay jens fights him, after the first fight he specificallly said he would never rematch robert. robert was a boy then now he would kill jens not a goof fight for jens imho
I dont know about kill Jens,in thier first fight jens had a fractured cheek bone or fractured orbital(dont remember which it was) so he didnt want to get hit too much,so he took it to the ground.No doubt that Emerson surprised him with his skills standing.
Nowadays Jens's hands have grown leaps and bounds,his left is a fight ender at 155 lbs.
Emerson is now training at No Limits with Team Oyama. He gets a chance to work out with several Olympic Wrestling coaches, multiple BJJ black belts, and world famous mauy thai instructor Colin Oyama. I don't think Pulver will be able to take Emerson down...and Emerson has improved his striking 10 fold since the pulver fight. I would love to see the rematch on the IFL card. Emerson was a KID when he fought Pulver. He's grown a lot. I have also heard from several people that Pulver has said he would not rematch Emerson.
First time I saw Emerson fight was at some illegal fights that they would have in Wilmington. He fought a Gokor guy, and sorry, but all the Gokor guys there were pretty arogant, and they were kicking ass on everyone. So, Robert is this kid, nobody knows, and he came down with Chris Brennan.
Fight starts, Robert escapes a choke, I though he was going to tap, but he was tough and fought out of it. Keep in mind, the rules are open and, and whap, he palm punches the Gokar guy, drops the dude and probably broke his nose. It was insane. We all went crazy cause I for one had no idea who this "quiet" kid was.
He is one tough kid, and had good striking skills. That was a long time ago and he was strong then, and I've seen pictures of him now, he is way bigger now.