Heath Herring

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Heath Herring

Statistics
Nickname	Texas Crazy Horse
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight	259 lb (117 kg/18.5 st)
Born	March 2, 1978 (1978-03-02) (age 30)
Fighting out of	Las Vegas, Nevada
Town of birth	Waco, Texas
Team/Association	Las Vegas Combat Club^[1]
Fighting style	Sambo, Kickboxing
Mixed martial arts record
Wins	28
By knockout	7
By submission	16
Losses	13
No contests	1

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 battles with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

1 Career
2 MMA record
3 References
4 External links

[edit] 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.

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. 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 Igor Vovchanchyn and Mark Kerr.

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, 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^{[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 is now slated to Fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 after Mark Coleman was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury.

[edit] MMA record

Professional record breakdown
42 matches	28 wins	13 losses
By knockout	7	4
By submission	16	2
By decision	4	7
Draws	0
No contests	1

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