Heath Herring

Heath Herring
Heath Herring
Statistics
Nickname	The Texas Crazy Horse
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight	250 lb (110 kg; 18 st)
Born	March 2, 1978 (age 31)
Fighting out of	Las Vegas, Nevada
Town of birth	Waco, Texas
Team/Association	Las Vegas Combat Club/Xtreme Couture
Primary fighting style	Sambo, Kickboxing
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	28
By knockout	7
By submission	16
Losses	14
No contests	1

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Heath Herring (born March 2, 1978 in Waco, TX, raised in Amarillo, TX[1]) is an American Heavyweight professional mixed martial artist who attained popularity fighting for PRIDE FC in Japan and now fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is primarily known for fighting the world's top heavyweight talent, such as Fedor Emilianenko, Mirko "Cro Cop," Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brock Lesnar and others[2].

[edit] Career

Herring is an MMA fighter who practices sambo and muay thai. He currently lives in Las Vegas and trains at Warrior Training Center under the Dutch Kickboxing/Muay Thai legend Rob Kaman [3]

Herring is known for unique hairstyles and colors as well as wearing a cowboy hat and duster coat to the ring. His appearance is very popular among the Japanese crowd. According to commentary during his PRIDE Shockwave '03 fight against Giant Silva, he wears contact lenses.

[edit] PRIDE Fighting Championship

Herring is a long time veteran in PRIDE, where he participated in 17 fights[4]. He took part in the first Heavyweight title fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira where he lost by unanimous decision. Despite his earlier championship loss to Rodrigo Nogueira he was widely considered the number one contender until his first round loss to Fedor Emelianenko. His most notable wins are over Evan Tanner, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mark Kerr, and Cheick Kongo.

He parted ways with PRIDE in late 2004 because of management and payment disputes.

[edit] New Year's Eve Kiss

Herring was involved in a memorable MMA moment on December 31, 2005 during K-1's Dynamite 2005 show. During the pre-fight staredown, his opponent, Yoshihiro Nakao, leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Herring reacted, delivering a right hook to the jaw of Nakao, knocking him out cold. Herring was immediately disqualified and Nakao was carried from the ring. Shortly thereafter, Nakao's cornermen attacked Herring and a brief melee ensued. The fight result has since been changed by K-1 from a disqualification loss for Herring to a no contest, as K-1 judges ruled that Nakao's kiss and Herring's subsequent knockout punch were both fouls.^[2]

[edit] Transition to the UFC

Herring was long suspected to be an acquisition of the UFC's purchase of the World Fighting Alliance. Herring had signed a contract with the WFA in 2006, and it was soon confirmed that he had become integrated into the UFC roster following the WFA buyout. He lost to Jake O'Brien via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 8 in his UFC debut.

On Saturday, April 7, 2007, at UFC 69 Heath faced off against The Ultimate Fighter 2 heavyweight finalist Brad Imes. Herring won the match by unanimous decision after 3 rounds.

At UFC 73, Herring lost via unanimous decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but not before he landed a left high kick to Nogueira's head late in the first round. Nogueira was sent to the ground, visibly stunned, but Herring did not engage him and attempt to finish the fight, opting to stand up shortly after the kick and beckoned Nogueira to stand as well. The referee motioned Noguiera to stand up after the brief flurry on the ground, giving Herring the advantage but Herring was not able to finish the fight in the first round. Nogueira then controlled the action for the next two rounds with Herring backing away constantly.

At UFC 82 Heath put on what many believe was his best performance to date in the octagon^{[citation needed]}, winning a three round split-decision against rising contender Cheick Kongo, the fight surprised many by taking place mostly on the ground while both are considered strikers they both showed vastly improving ground game. After the fight Heath said he wasn't happy with the fight, he wanted to give the fans a stand-up fight and Kongo refused to stand with him. Herring also said after the fight that he did not even train at all for the ground game.

Herring fought Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 after Mark Coleman was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury. The fight went the full 3 rounds and Lesnar was declared winner by unanimous decision. Herring was seen struggling with the larger, physically more dominant opponent, and was knocked down early in the first round with a straight right. According to Heath Herring's official Facebook profile in a note titled "6 Months To Rest", Herring is said to have suffered a broken orbital bone from the first punch of the fight and is expected to be out of action for six months.

Herring was scheduled to fight Cain Velasquez in UFC 99, but was forced to withdraw due an undisclosed injury suffered from training, to be replaced by Cheick Kongo [5].

[edit] Film career

Heath Herring starred in Never Surrender, that was released by Lions Gate Entertainment in 2009.

[edit] MMA record

Professional record breakdown
43 matches	28 wins	14 losses
By knockout	7	4
By submission	16	2
By decision	4	8
Draws	0
No contests	1

28 Wins 14 Losses
Date	Outcome	Record	Opponent	Method	Event	Round, Time	Notes
2008-08-09	Loss	28–14 (1)	Brock Lesnar	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 87: Seek and Destroy	3, 5:00
2008-03-01	Win	28–13 (1)	Cheick Kongo	Decision (Split)	UFC 82: Pride of a Champion	3, 5:00
2007-07-07	Loss	27–13 (1)	Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 73: Stacked	3, 5:00
2007-04-07	Win	27–12 (1)	Brad Imes	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC 69: Shootout	3, 5:00
2007-01-25	Loss	26–12 (1)	Jake O'Brien	Decision (Unanimous)	UFC Fight Night 8	3, 5:00
2006-03-15	Win	26–11 (1)	Gary Goodridge	TKO (Punches)	K-1 Hero's 4	2, 1:55
2005-12-31	No Contest	25–11 (1)	Yoshihiro Nakao	No Contest (Both committed fouls)	K-1 Dynamite!!! 2005	Pre Fight	Herring knocked Nakao out after Nakao kissed him
2005-03-26	Loss	25–11	Sam Greco	TKO (Knee Injury)	K-1 Hero's 1	1, 2:24
2004-10-21	Win	25–10	Hirotaka Yokoi	KO (Knees)	PRIDE 28	1, 1:55
2004-06-20	Loss	24–10	Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira	Submission (Anaconda Choke)	PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004	2, 0:30
2004-04-25	Win	24–9	Yoshiki Takahashi	KO (Punches)	PRIDE Total Elimination 2004	1, 4:53
2004-02-01	Win	23–9	Gan McGee	Decision	PRIDE 27	3, 5:00
2003-12-31	Win	22–9	Giant Silva	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	PRIDE Shockwave 2003	3, 0:35
2003-11-09	Win	21–9	Yoshihisa Yamamoto	Submission (Choke)	PRIDE Final Conflict 2003	3, 2:29
2003-06-08	Loss	20–9	Mirko Filipovic	TKO (Strikes)	PRIDE 26	1, 3:17
2002-11-24	Loss	20–8	Fedor Emelianenko	TKO (Doctor Stoppage)	PRIDE 23	1, 10:00
2002-09-29	Win	20–7	Iouri Kotchkine	TKO (Knees)	PRIDE 22	1, 7:31
2002-02-24	Win	19–7	Igor Vovchanchyn	Decision (Unanimous)	PRIDE 19	3, 5:00
2001-11-03	Loss	18–7	Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira	Decision (Unanimous)	PRIDE 17, +93 kg Title Match	3, 5:00
2001-07-29	Win	18–6	Mark Kerr	TKO (Knees)	PRIDE 15	2, 4:56
2001-05-27	Loss	17–6	Vitor Belfort	Decision	PRIDE 14	3, 5:00
2001-03-25	Win	17–5	Denis Sobolev	Submission (Keylock)	PRIDE 13	1,:22
2000-12-09	Win	16–5	Enson Inoue	TKO (Strikes)	PRIDE 12	1, 4:52
2000-10-31	Win	15–5	Tom Erikson	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	PRIDE 11	1, 6:17
2000-06-04	Win	14–5	Willie Peeters	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	PRIDE 9	1, 0:48
2000-04-29	Loss	13–5	Ramazan Mezhidov	TKO (Cut)	IAFC-Pankration World Championship 2000 Day 2	1, 4:55
2000-03-05	Win	13–4	Rene Rooze	DQ (Excessive Fouling)	2H2H 1–2 Hot 2 Handle	1, 3:20
1999-09-27	Win	12–4	Bob Schrijber	TKO (Punches)	WVC 9-World Vale Tudo Championship 9	1, 2:19
1999-09-27	Win	11–4	Sean McCully	Submission (Kimura)	WVC 9-World Vale Tudo Championship 9	1, 0:43
1999-09-27	Win	10–4	Michael Tielrooy	Submission (Keylock)	WVC 9-World Vale Tudo Championship 9	1, 1:14
1999-09-07	Loss	9–4	Bobby Hoffman	Decision (Unanimous)	SB 13-SuperBrawl 13	2, 5:00
1999-09-07	Win	9–3	Rocky Batastini	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	SB 13-SuperBrawl 13	1, 1:00
1999-07-01	Loss	8–3	Alexandre Ferreira	Decision	WVC 8-World Vale Tudo Championship 8	1, 30:00
1999-07-01	Win	8–2	Kavkaz Soultanmagomedov	Submission (Punches)	WVC 8-World Vale Tudo Championship 8	1, 1:18
1999-07-01	Win	7–2	Erwin van den Steen	Submission (Punches)	WVC 8-World Vale Tudo Championship 8	1, 4:33
1999-06-01	Win	6–2	Gabe Beauperthy	Submission (Armlock)	BRI 3-Bas Rutten Invitational 3	1, 4:43
1999-06-01	Win	5–2	Hoss Carter	Submission (Keylock)	BRI 3-Bas Rutten Invitational 3	1, 1:07
1999-05-15	Loss	4–2	Travis Fulton	Decision	EC 24-Extreme Challenge 24	1, 12:00
1999-04-17	Win	4–1	Phil Deason	Submission (Keylock)	WVF-Durango	1, 0:13
1999-04-17	Win	3–1	Nik Bickle	Submission (Strikes)	WVF-Durango	1, 0:32
1997-11-22	Win	2–1	Evan Tanner	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	PSDA: PSDA	1, 8:20
1997-10-18	Loss	1–1	Evan Tanner	Verbal Submission (Exhaustion)	USWF 7: Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation 7	1, 6:19
1997-04-12	Win	1–0	Chris Guillen	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	USWF 4-Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation 4	1, 6:19