“The thing about Heath Herring is that he not only says he’ll fight anyone, he proves it because he gets in there and does it. But he kind of always teetered between being a success and mediocrity. He’d win one, he’d lose one, and he just sometimes struck you as a flabby guy who wasn’t particularly dedicated. He’s all of a sudden changed his tune, and he’s much more serious and focused and dedicated. And when Heath Herring is focused and in shape, he’s a tough guy for anyone to beat.”
– UFC President Dana White tells Yahoo!Sports.com that he likes what he sees with the improved Heath Herring, who has adopted a new nutritional program and re-dedicated himself to training. Perhaps the massive man who will stand across from him inside the Octagon, Brock Lesnar, at UFC 87: “Seek and Destroy” this weekend has lit a fire under the “Texas Crazy Horse.” It should be real interesting to see how this unfolds on Saturday night.
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I totally agree with Dana’s whole assessment of the Texas crazy horse. When he is in shape like he was against Kongo, he is really tough for anyone to beat! I know that we all saw him fight Nogueira 3 times already, but we have never seen Herring in great shape fight against Nog, and I actully wouldnt mind seeing them fight again, that is, only if Herring comes in shape like he did against Kongo.
What the UFC should have done was match up:
Werdum vs. Herring and
Brock vs. the guy I never heard of thats fighting Werdum.
I dont get this fixation with throwing a novice mma fighter (brock) who is 1-1 in mma to the wolves. I just dont get it! Especially when real fighters with a ton of fights under their belts like Bisping and Huerta had been protected by the UFC for so long! Much props to Brock for only fighting top guys!
dude come on heath herring is terrible he had noguiera done and he didnt finish him that was probably the dumbest thin ive seen in the octagon man if he was a godd fighter noguiera would have had another loss
he is not a good fighter because he could not finish nog? He came super close to knocking him out and i actually think nog was out for a little bit but herring made a mistake and didnt follow up and he will admit it. Herring is still a good fighter and he has fought the best of the best. Herring is going to give lesnar everything he can handle come saturday night thats for sure
You don’t get it and I respect brock a whole lot more for it! He’s said he wants top competition. think about it john, if you go to the gym and the drexel basketball team is there, you play a pick up game with them. next day you go and the jv high school team from down the road is there. who is making you a better player and pushing you to work harder?
Ummm…..the high school JV team? LMFAO
by the way, I got heath weathering lesners initial explosion and winning on pure experience!
John the reason he is being thrown to the wolves is he is on $250k a fight.
For that Dana needs him to sell big by putting him in the big fights.
They don’t want to pay him 250+250 for a win against some muppet on an undercard. The big pull about Brock is the whole “can he cut it with the real mma guys” thats what brought in all the belt wearing hulkamaniacs, to answer that question.
Thats the difference between him and Bisping (shitty TUF contract) and Huerta (shitty came up through the ranks contract).
The UFC can’t afford to ease Brock in, they need money out of him pronto. Like others said tho, massive props to Brock for fighting top notch (in terms of UFC heavies) comp.
I am not saying that Brock shouldnt fight top guys, I like it and respect him for it. I am saying I would like to see other fighters like Bisping and Huerta to have been treated the way Brock was!
feeding him to the wolves…. lets not forget that Brock is comming in as the favorite… maybe the odds are a little in favor of him b/c he is well known but he is a pretty heavy favorite so even without his reputation he would be picked to win
don’t understand the odd huh?
john not everybody who comes into the ufc is going to get thrown to the wolves. Huerta is only making 19,000 to show and $19,000 to win he was brought in by the ufc and has now turned into a star because of the ufc and if he beat kenny florian he will be seeing a big raise when his contract runs out. Bisping was a tuf winner and like all the other tufers with the exception of diego he has been built up with some easier oppentents to get them the experience in the octagon and also to build on their popularity. Looked what it did for griffin he was brought up slowly and now he is the lhw champ and one of the most popular fighters in the ufc right there behind chuck liddell. Bisping is being groomed to challenge for the middleweight title and he is now starting to face stiffer competition such as rashad evans and now chris leben. You cant expect the ufc the bring in a guy who they want to market as a star and throw them to the wolves right away because once they lose a couple of fights in a row they lose their heir of invicibility and start to lose their popularity. Look at chuck he loses two fights and everybody starts to jump off his bandwagon after years and years of being the best imagine if huerta or bisping came in and lost their first two or three fights, nobody would want to see them anymore but the difference between bisping/huerta and lesnar is is that lesnar has a huge name and fan following from the start bisping and huerta have been brought to fame by the ufc.
Matt, I dont want to see fighters turned into stars by the UFC. THats what the WEC is for! U should start off fighting the weakest guys in the division. U win and u take another step up in quality of competition, win that fight and you keep moving up with each fight getting harder and harder! Huerta and Bisping just kept fighting weak opponents. the level of competition did not increase with each win. WE are NOW finally seeing them fight other good fighters and its way over due!
YOu want to build a star, thats what the WEC is for. Just like they are doing with Carlos Condit. He is being groomed in the WEC to eventually become a UFC star!
If the ufc doesnt build stars and create fighters that have big fan followings they dont make as much money as a company and making money is the ufc’s top priority hands down. The WEC is the same way they find fighters worthy of becoming stars and bring them along slowy it is a smart business move. And in bispings case the level of competition went up every fight up until the point where he dropped to the middleweight division and now he will be facing a huge test in leben. And the WEC is not for building stars its main goal is to feature the lighter weight classes and the only big name in the wec is urijah faber, condit is only known amongst hardcore fans guys like huerta and faber are known throughout the mma world including casual fans.
I am actually really pumped up for this fight. There are so many questions surrounding Brock. I think I am more curious than anything to see how he preformes. And Heath looked ripped and in shape in that video with BJ. Sould be very interesting…
i cant lie, I am also pretty pumped up for this fight!
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Not sure who I am going to bet on, but I will throw money on 1 of these meat heads!
I think that brock will be to much for him weather he is in shape or not, that being said I like to watch Herring fight win or lose the UFC should keep him around he is a stern test for any heavyweight.
this statement make me even more pumped for the lesnar/herring fight. both fighters seem to want badly. dana’s not giving brock a break cuz he has always said that if any other athelete(boxers,football players,pro wrestlers,any athelete) thinks this sport (mma) is easy, and wants to try it out, he will make sure that they wont think its so easy after they fight for him. i think he sees something in brock and that is another reason why he is giving him tough fights right off the bat. dana doesnt think like all the other promoters, he is a fan 1rst and doesnt worry about protecting brock, he just wants to see a good fight.
Personally I feel that Brock should have been babied a bit considering the HW division is so weak. I like to watch Herring fight as well but I think Brock’s size will be too much for him in this fight. Prediction: Brock, TKO, round 2.
i agree and i would not even consider it babying, the ufc has some weaker talent in the hw devision that they could have thrown at brock first and he only had 1 fight coming into the ufc.
you cant be throwing lesnar chumps when he is making $250,000 per fight
Yes, I think that Brock’s size and brute strength will give him the advantage in this fight. IF Herring’s takedown defense hasn’t gotten better since the O’Brien fight, then I don’t think Gary Coleman would have much of a problem getting him to the ground, never mind Brock Lesnar.
However, you can never discredit the experience factor. Heath has fought some of the best HW’s in the world. Brock has been in the ring for 1 minute against Min So Can and 1 minute with Frank Mir. That is the extent of his experience.
Does anyone know how many submissions Heath has off of his back? Because that would be his best chance at winning this fight. Of course he’ll have the edge in the standup department, but if he’s getting the best of Brock, Lesnar will take him down.
Because of that, I am STILL finding this fight very hard to bet on. I can make a good case why to bet on either fighter, and I can make a good case why not to bet on either fighter.
2 subs in his last 13 fights. anything beyond that is ancient history to me but does count for experience like you said. i agree wit Dana’s assessment of Herring too. However that still doesn’t change my mind that Brock is going to donkey kong DINO-maul Herring. Herring is a T/KO finisher. In my mind only thing that can overcome Brock’s power is technique/skills like Mir did him. I don’t think Herring has that. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to bet on Brock cuz he did put giant kongo on his back. this fight is going to be Fugly. If Herring pulls this off without ref’s help, it’ll be mind blowing.
he has 16 submission wins
Lesnar by G&P round 1
I love all of the crazy Lesnar fans, assuring a victory after the man has shown absolutely nothing. I really mean that. You guys are going to win me a boatload of money on Saturday.
Put it this way: the UFC does not want Brock to head to any other promotion, regardless how he does in this fight.
Also, let’s face it, he looked explosive and Hulk-like against Frank Mir. About 20 seconds into that fight, I’d lost hope of Mir winning (for whom I was rooting). Lesnar was turning him into hamburger till his rookie leg got caught in that lock.
The man is a beast he will be to much for Herring. I wouldn’t bet to much.
If Herring loses this fight, he’ll get that dreaded “gate-keeper” label. Dana says he’s teetering b/w success and mediocrity. It seems each division has that type of fighter:
HW: Herring
LHW: Jardine
WW: Karo
LW: Guida
Oh, and
MW: J. MacDonald or Marquardt
Karo is garbage. Doesnt even deserve the title of gate-keeper, hasnt finished anyone in over 2 years.
Once J-Mac loses this weekend, then he can be considered a gate keeper. His only loses have been to the #1 contenders.
He was in good shape against Fedor and CroCop, both of whom used him as a punching bag. The guy can take a punch though. He was still going against Fedor when the doctors finally called it. Eegadz his face was nasty in that fight. I’m surprised he fully healed from it.
I’m glad he’s not doing the garbage with his hair though. It made him look so goofy when he was getting pummeled.
I saw Heath in an interview the other day state that his “hair guy” is booked and ready to go for this fight. So, unfortunately, you can probably expect more “goofy hair garbage” from the Texas Crazy Horse. Although, hair-don’t or not, he’ll likely still look goofy while getting pounded on by Brock on Saturday.
That said, I wouldn’t mind if Heath pulled off the victory, I just think that Brock is going to be too much for him to handle (just like he was for Mir before the sub).
all you guys said that about mir
mir had mazagatti on his side though. 2 against 1 dont seem fair to me.
I got Heath on this one,
That is by far the most accurate description of Heath Herring. When the guy has passion, watch out.
theres very good reason why Brock lesnar is on a big contract, he has an army of fans…..$$$$$£££££$$$$££££ Ya feel me??!!
Thus being the reason the likes of bisping isnt on such a contract. its win win for the ufc, if brock wins hes an instant hit plus all his wwe following will have bought a ton of ppv’s and if he loses all of his fans will have bought a ton of ppv’s!! Thats what you call an intellegent investment, in comparison to the compared Kimbo Slice!
I bet on heath but i really can’t call this. Brock is kind of a mystery. He looked scary against Mir. If he’s improved since then which i think is safe to assume he might be to much for Heath. Either way i’m looking forward to it and i’m stick with my pick just based on experience.
I doubt Lesnar’s ever been hit as hard as Heath will hit him. Herring by KO round 1.
I know someone who isn’t interested in MMA at all. I told them about Brock Lesnar and now they are going to watch UFC 87 with me on Saturday. Brock is bringing in more fans and he is exciting to watch. Brock is good for the sport.