A pure excedance in a permutation $π=π_1π_2\ldots π_n$ is a position $i<π_i$ such that there is no $j<i$ with $i\leq π_j<π_i$. We present a one-to-one correspondence on the symmetric group that transports pure excedances to descents of special kind. As a byproduct, we prove that the popularity of pure excedances equals those of pure descents on permutations, while their distributions are different.