Heath Herring

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 PRIDE Career
4 K-1 Hero's Stint
5 UFC Career
6 Mixed martial arts record
7 Gallery
8 External links

Profile

Heath "The Texas Crazy Horse" Herring (born March 2, 1978) is an American professional mixed martial artist fighting out of Xtreme Couture and Las Vegas Combat Club in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He stands 6 ft. 4 in. tall and fights in the heavyweight division, weighing approximately 250 lbs..

He was a heavyweight title challenger in the Japan based, PRIDE Fighting Championships and currently fights as a heavyweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Heath Herring made his professional mixed martial arts debut at a United Shoot Wrestling Federation event in Amarillo, Texas on April 12, 1997. He faced fellow debutant, Chris Guillen who he defeated via rear naked choke submission at 2:10 of the first round.

In his second professional bout he faced future UFC middleweight champion, Evan Tanner. In a tough bout, Herring submitted due to exhaustion in a little over six minutes of the first round.

A rematch with Tanner followed in his next bout, and this time Herring was not to be outdone as he submitted Tanner at 8:20 mark with a rear naked choke.

Herring followed the Tanner victory with two quick submission wins in a four man, one night tournament for the World Vale Tudo Federation before suffered the second loss of his career to the veteran of all veterans, Travis Fulton via decision in May of 1999.

A quick bounce back in the form of a victory in a four man tournament at the third Bas Rutten Invitational got Herring back on track.

At World Vale Tudo Championships 8, Herring made it to the final of a one night 8-man tournament, eventually losing to Alexandre Ferreira via decision.

Herring made it to the semi final of the SuperBrawl 13 16 man tournament in his professional outing. Herring lost to UFC veteran Bobby Hoffman via decision. Hoffman went on to lose to future UFC heavyweight champion, Josh Barnett in the final.

With a record of 9-4, Herring returned to the World Vale Tudo Championships, this time going one better than last time and securing the 16 man tournament. He finished all of his opponents within the distance, eventually scoring a TKO over PRIDE veteran, "Dirty" Bob Schrijber in the final.

A disqualification victory in his next outing over Rene Rooze was followed by his fifth career loss, this one to unheralded Russian fighter, Ramazan Mezhidov via cut stoppage.

PRIDE Career

On June 4, 2000, Herring got invited to participate in the Japanese based, PRIDE Fighting Championships. He fought Dutch fighter, Willie Peeters at PRIDE 9 and defeated his opponent via rear naked choke in 48 seconds.

At PRIDE 11, Herring was thrown in against highly vaunted, wrestling juggernaut, Tom Erikson. Almost nobody gave Herring a chance in the fight, as the undefeated Erikson had been running through opponents so far in his career. After an early takedown by Erikson, Herring bided his time underneath with Erikson doing little to no damage. The fight was eventually stood up and Herring made the most of the oppurtunity, rocking Erikson with a head kick before securing a rear naked choke which forced the tap at 6:17 of round 1.

A little over a month later, Herring was given another highly touted opponent, in Hawaiian grappler, Enson Inoue. Herring impressed once again, dispatching of the durable grappler via TKO at 4:52 of round 1.

A 22 second keylock submission over Denis Sobolev at PRIDE 13 had Herring's record pushed up to 17 wins and 5 losses with his stature growing in the division with every fight.

At PRIDE 14, Herring was matched up against UFC tournament champion, Vitor Belfort. Although Herring had a substantial weight advantage he still appeared to control the action in the bout for long enough to earn himself the decision. However, the judges instead awarded Belfort the unanimous decision, snapping Herring's three fight win streak.

In July of 2001, Herring was matched up against former PRIDE wrecking machine and UFC tournament champion, Mark Kerr. Kerr populated the first round and a half with takedown attempts that had Herring on the bottom biding his time. Similar to the Erikson fight however, when given a chance on the feet in the second round, Herring made the most of it. He punished Kerr with knees, eventually forcing the referee to step in after dropping many unanswered knees on Kerr's head from the turtled position.

Following the high profile victory over Kerr, Herring was given the chance to fight in the first ever heavyweight title bout for the PRIDE Fighting Championships. He would face Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at PRIDE 17 in November of 2001. In a highly entertaining bout, Nogueira's superior boxing and grappling came to the fore as he eventually was awarded the unanimous decision victory and the championship.

At PRIDE 19, Herring defeated another highly regarded opponent in Igor Vovchanchyn via decision before scoring a TKO stoppage over a lesser regarded opponent in Iouri Kotchkine at PRIDE 22.

Herring was given the task of facing unassuming looking Russian fighter, Fedor Emelianenko in his next bout at PRIDE 23. Herring was considered a cautious favourite by a lot of people before the fight, but after the first round of dominating ground and pound from Fedor, the fight was stopped due to the damage on Herring's face.

Given no let up in his next fight, Herring faced K-1 star turned MMA fighter, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic in his return bout. Cro Cop's superior striking was just too much for Herring as battered Herring en route to a 3:17 stoppage in the first round.

Herring was finally given a let up from elite competition in his next two fights as he faced Japanese fighter, Yoshihisa Yamamoto at PRIDE Final Conflict 2003 (rear naked choke victory) and then 7 ft. 2 in. tall, Giant Silva at PRIDE Shockwave 2003 who he also submitted via rear naked choke in the third round.

In February of 2004, Herring faced former UFC heavyweight title challenger, Gan McGee for a spot in the PRIDE 2004 heavyweight grand prix. In a close fight, Herring was awarded the split decision victory, however both fighters ended up making it into the open weight tournament.

In the opening round of the 2004 open weight tournament, Herring faced and defeated UFC veteran, Kazuo Takahashi via TKO at 4:53 of round 1 to move into the quarter finals.

Herring faced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a rematch in the quarter finals. The fight played out much the same way as the first for the first round, however in the second Herring was caught by Nogueira in an Anaconda choke and forced to tap out, thus eliminating him from the tournament.

In his last bout for the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Herring faced Hirotaka Yokoi at PRIDE 28. He defeated Yokoi via KO due to knee strikes at 1:55 of round 1.

K-1 Hero's Stint

In his first fight outside of PRIDE in over five years, Herring entered the K-1 Hero's organization where he faced Karate specialist, Sam Greco in his debut. Just over 2 minutes in, Herring suffered a knee injury and the fight was stopped, with Greco being awarded the TKO victory.

After rehabbing the knee injury, Herring was slated to return at the K-1 New Year's Eve show, K-1: Premium 2005 Dynamite!!. He was matched up against Yoshihiro Nakao in a bout that never got going, literally. At the pre-fight staredown, Nakao leaned in and kissed Herring on the lips, Herring quickly let loose a punch that knocked Nakao cold. Herring rationalized to the referee, "He tried to kiss me on the lips like a homosexual, I'm not gay!". The fight was originally ruled a disqualification loss against Herring but after the replay was shown it was judged that Nakao also committed a foul and the bout was ruled a No Contest.

In March of 2006, Herring faced UFC and PRIDE veteran, Gary Goodridge at K-1 Hero's 4. Herring scored a TKO victory over Goodridge in the second round.

UFC Career

In late 2006, Herring was signed to a contract with the UFC and was matched up against Jake O'Brien on the main card of UFC Fight Night 8 which was set to take place on January 25, 2007. In a disappointing and lackluster fight, Herring was constantly taken down by O'Brien who attempted very little offense while on top. Apart from dropping O'Brien at one stage, Herring was ultimately stifled by O'Brien and lost a unanimous decision.

Relegated to the undercard, Herring returned to UFC competition at UFC 69 against TUF 2 heavyweight runner-up, Brad Imes. Herring looked back to old form in the bout as he looked one step ahead of Imes throughout, eventually taking a unanimous decision victory.

At UFC 73, Herring was matched up for the third time with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira who was making his UFC debut. Nogueira controlled the majority of the first round with superior boxing, takedowns and submission attempts. Late in the first round however, Herring landed a picturesque high kick that dropped Nogueira hard. Instead of jumping on Nogueira he motioned him back to his feet, which he did groggily but by the time he did the first round had finished.

In the second round, Nogueira had regained his senses and went back to dominating Herring in all areas, eventually taking a unanimous decision victory at the conclusion of the third.

An extremely disappointed Herring took a good 7 months off before returning on the main card of UFC 82 in March of 2008 against Cheick Kongo. Herring dropped Kongo with a punch early forcing Kongo into shooting for takedowns for the rest of the fight. The two traded positions on the ground for the rest of the fight with Herring finishing the second and third rounds in side control, reigning down knees on the hapless Kongo. At the conclusion of the fight, Herring was awarded the split decision victory.

When Mark Coleman pulled out of his August 2008, UFC 87 fight with Brock Lesnar, Herring was asked to fill in. Seconds into the fight, Herring was sent rolling backwards across the Octagon from a right hand from Lesnar. From there, Lesnar scored takedowns at will and dominated Herring positionally on the ground, scoring a wide unanimous decision victory.

A despondent and battered Herring once again took some time off and is next scheduled to appear at UFC 99 against rising heavyweight contender, Cain Velasquez.