Heath Herring

MMAstatsbox

---

name=Heath Herring
nick=The Texas Crazy Horse
height=height|ft=6|in=4
weight=convert|250|lb|kg st|abbr=on|lk=on
birthdate=birth date and age|year=1978|month=3|day=2
fightingfrom=Las Vegas, Nevada
hometown=Waco, Texas
fightteam=Las Vegas Combat Club/Xtreme Couturecite web
url=http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?fighterID=13
title=Fight Finder: Heath Herring
year=2007
accessdate=2007-08-15
publisher=Sherdog]
fightstyle=Sambo, Kickboxing
wins=28
losses=14
nocontest=1
ko=7
submissions=16|

Heath "The Texas Crazy Horse" Herring (born March 2, 1978 in Waco, Texas) 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 known for his entertaining battles with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, all three of which he has lost.

Career

Herring is an MMA fighter who practices wrestling, sambo and muay thai. He currently lives in Las Vegas and trains at the Xyience Training center.Training under Dutch trainer and Kickboxing/Muy Thai legend Rob Kaman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Kaman]

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.

PRIDE Fighting Championship

Herring is a long time veteran in PRIDE. 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.

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. [ [http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=3953 Herring-Nakao Result Changed to No Contest ] ]

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, despite the fact he had landed a left high kick to Nogueira's head late in the first round dropping Nogueira. Nogueira was sent to the ground visibly stunned and Herring tried to finish but Nogueira was able to block Herring's punches on the ground. Herring stood up shortly after trying to finish the fight respecting the better ground fighter between the two 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 Fact|date=March 2008, 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 claims 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.

MMA record

MMArecordbox
wins=28
losses=14
draws=0
ko-wins=7
ko-losses=4
dec-losses=8
sub-wins=16
sub-losses=2
dec-wins=4
nc=1

References

External links

* [http://www.heath-herring.com/ Official Website]
* [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=215265704 Myspace Page]
* [http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=fighter.detail&PID=515 UFC.com Profile]
*sherdog|id=13|name=Heath Herring