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« | Home | »

Heath Herring loses

By Zach Arnold | January 25, 2007

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A new poll has been added to the right side of the web page. Go vote.

Ultimate Fight Night 8 recaps: Observer (plus they have a story about Kit Cope testing positive for steroids) | Sherdog | UFC Junkie (our best wishes to them and Sean Salmon)

Update: Sean Salmon is at a local hospital.

From NBC Sports: It’s only a couple weeks into January, but it’s hard to imagine that there will be a more brutal knockout finish than the one Salmon endured in his Fight Night main event loss to Rashad Evans. Fortunately, it appears he’ll be OK. UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight news conference that Salmon would be fine, but was being taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons. Evans improved his record to a perfect 10-0 following a right high kick that landed flush on Salmon’s jaw and rendered him unconscious before he hit the mat.

From Sean Salmon’s sponsor: We spoke to the family, and Sean is okay. He’s been checked over by doctors and will be released tonight. Thanks for keeping him in your prayers and thinking good thoughts. I’m sure his family and friends appreciate it.

Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

29 Responses to “Heath Herring loses”

  1. CapnHulk says:

    Heath didn’t look nearly as sharp as he has in the past. His takedown defense wasn’t there at all. O’Brien was content to squeak out a lay and pray decision even though he had all the chances in the world to finish Herring. I think this will be an eye-opener for Herring.

    Franca was great, as usual.

  2. DJ Flash says:

    Condolences? Please clarify. That sounds bad.

  3. Ivan Trembow says:

    I thought that it was a little arrogant of Herring to say that O’Brien won if it was a wrestling match, and saying the fight was on the ground too much. Anyone who is going to spout off that line might be in the wrong sport and might prefer kickboxing. It’s MMA. If you don’t want the fight to be on the ground, stop the guy’s takedowns and it won’t be on the ground.

  4. martin says:

    Danna, Sign Vera Or let him fight his last fight

  5. Ivan Trembow says:

    he will, but not until closer to September (unless they agree to a renewal, of course)

  6. Xenos says:

    Thank God Salmon will be okay.

  7. Jordan Breen says:

    I personally just don’t understand why people expected Heath to rampage here. He’s never been an outstanding wrestler, he got taken down all over the place by a tubby Igor, and has been on the bottom of many guys who are far inferior wrestlers to O’Brien. It seemed fairly obvious, to me at least, what was going to happen not barring one Heath’s miracle midkicks-turned-into-knees. We’re still talking about a guy who barely beat a 300+ pound Gan McGee who would’ve probably quit their fight in progress for a Big Mac.

    On related notes…

    Good to see Marquardt treated Lister the way a top level fighter should. The problem is that the UFC needs pit him against an engaging action fighter in a high profile fight in order for him to do anything. If Swick faces Okami in wins, a Swick/Marquardt eliminator should happen on a Fight Night card, undoubtedly.

    Great performance by Rashad, took his time, did his thing. The KO was obviously beautiful, but I thought he fought a solid fight all the way up to, despite losing the first round. He should be utilized on the April Fight Night card again, and it’d be nice to see him get in maybe two more stylistic type match ups at 205, so he can have the experience of putting all his skills together in the Octagon before jumping in with Class A fighters.

    Also, perhaps my favorite part of the night is the fact that the UFC has moved from a self-substantiating shillfest for the sport and the product, to being able to just call the events in a more objective fashion. It’s refreshing to hear Rogan point out that O’Brien was intended to lose, rather than the familiar refrain of him being “young and hungry”, and equally refreshing for him to depict Rashad as a clear favorite, and cast Salmon as the “opponent”. He’s not on a Max Kellerman-level of fightsport truthiness, but he’s somewhere comfortable that the UFC’s commentary hasn’t been yet, which is great.

  8. The MMA Critic says:

    The negotiations go both ways. If Vera wants to play hardball, the UFC can play hardball as well. Don’t show up at a competitors press conference when a company has you locked into a contract for a while. By the time the UFC has Vera fight, it will be close to a year between fights. And they can put it as a dark match.

    I hope Salmon is okay. He is a solid fighter.

    The UFC is really going strong already in 2007. They have title contenders set up in all of their divisions, and there are a lot of strong fighters coming up for the rest of the year and far into 2008. Tons of depth.

  9. The MMA Critic says:

    Inside The UFC is going to show clips of the fights not shown on the UFC Fight Night telecast. Way to go Zuffa!!! I am a fan of this trend.

  10. grafdog says:

    UFC should be able to get some tennis rackets and a bucket of glue from ol Texas crazy horse.

  11. Zach Arnold says:

    If I was PRIDE, I would spin this as a positive and say that this is a perfect example of why they never bothered to re-sign him. 🙂

  12. PizzaChef says:

    Jordan: The only reason why people thought he would rampage through the heavyweight division was because he was a former “PRIDE Top 3” fighter. So PRIDE fans would go ape**** and think “OMGHEGONNAROOLUFCPRIDERULEZLOL”

  13. The MMA Critic says:

    Wait until Tim Sylvia beats Randy Couture and Mirko Filipovic in back-to-back fights. See what the Pride fans will say then. When Cro Cop loses to Sylvia, that is the day when Cro Cop is officially a “UFC Only Fighter”.

  14. Jordan Breen says:

    “Jordan: The only reason why people thought he would rampage through the heavyweight division was because he was a former “PRIDE Top 3″ fighter. So PRIDE fans would go ape**** and think “OMGHEGONNAROOLUFCPRIDERULEZLOL” ”

    Yeah, I know the rationale. The problem with Heath in that role is, he’s so consistantly shown EXACTLY what he’s made of. Getting outwrestled by guys like Igor and Belfort, putting on a pathetic slopfest with McGee, shit like that. He’s so consistantly underwhelmed in fights against mediocre opposition, that I dunno how he even could’ve been considered a candidate for proving the supposed superiority of PRIDE.

  15. white ninja says:

    Zach:- there’s not much way to spin Heath’s loss as a positive for DSE. Heath was a very popular PRIDE fighter a couple of years ago and is still identified with PRIDE in Japan (despite all those false starts in K1)

    A loss to an entry level UFC fighter tarnishes the supposed “superiority” of PRIDE fighters (not that this superiority ever existed)

    Sort of feel sorry for Heath, his career has spiralled downwards since he left Bas Boon and Golden Glory

  16. Agreed with white ninja … all i kept thinking was “This is a guy who was a somebody in PRIDE and he’s getting manhandled by a total loser”. It’ll be interesting to see what UFC does with these two. That match is an early contender for worst match of 2007.

  17. Ivan Trembow says:

    lol at this paragraph from the Los Angeles Times:

    “Perhaps the most interesting exchange took place after the show at the press conference. When a reporter asked about a prospective match with Evans vs. Keith Jardine, who made a name for himself by knocking out Forrest Griffin on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas, UFC President Dana White said that sounded like a great idea. Evans shot back that he trains regularly with Jardine in Albuquerque, and he would never fight him. White said that if he made the match, he’d fight him. Evans shot back that he would not, and the awkward exchange ended at that point.”

  18. Wonder if we’ll get to see that on the media section of UFC.com 😉

  19. JThue says:

    Shut up and fight, Evans! 😛

    Boy, Herring, despite having shown weakness before, looked worse than ever last night. That was NOT the Heath of his good run in PRIDE, and anyone who claims otherwise obviously can’t have seen very much of him. Having said that, O’Brien proved that the gap is and has indeed been shorter than many people would think between the two HW-divisions, which in turn also makes Sylvia, YES SYLVIA, look better.

    Good GOD, Rogan. How can he claim it is STUPID for Herring to constantly give up his back when it seemed obbvious from the very start that O’Brien doesn’t have a clue how to deal with it, i.e; making it the quickest way back up for Heath? It was the only half way positive thing Herring did in this fight, really. Other than that Rogan had a good night though.

    All in all though, that fight dealt a blow to the HW-division. Herring needs to start from scratch again, and O’Brien may now get to bore us on a PPV main card. Jake is a great talent, but really should be nowhere near fighting regulary in the biggest org in the world until he at least learns some finishing skills.

  20. Mr. Roadblock says:

    Herring looked flabby and really slow. He’s only really had one fight since 2004. He blew his knee out against Sam Greco in early 2005 and then did the worked kiss match that New Years’s. The only fight he’s really had since October 2004 is his fight against Goodrich last March.

    I felt bad that he lost. I’ve wanted him to come to the U.S. for years. I thought with his attitude and straight ahead style fans here would love him. I’d like to see him fight Andrei at some point.

    Also win/lose or draw you can’t call him a Pride fighter anymore than you can call Coleman a UFC fighter or Diaz a UFC fighter for that matter.

  21. MMA T-Shirts says:

    “Heath Herring loses
    January 25th, 2007
    A new poll has been added to the right side of the web page. Go vote.”

    Nothing like a leading question! 😀

    Man, I was scared for Salmon by the way… that was horrible 🙁
    Herring looked like absolute crap… what a bizzare stance to use against a wrestler too, and how slow was his reaction time to the shot! It was like he was drunk or something.

  22. He probably just underestimated Jake O’Brien. It’ll be interesting to see if he buckles down and fixes all his issues … right now he’s at an impasse where he has an opportunity to make a *lot* of money in the UFC or drop out of the big leagues for good.

  23. badape says:

    I can’t watch a UFC event without thinking it’s kiddie mma. No knees or kicks to “grounded” or “kneed” opponents … doesn’t matter who’s to blame. Another depleted UFC event.

  24. The Gaijin says:

    Wait let me see if I got this straight…A guy that hasn’t fought in PRIDE for like 4 years, went to another organization and likely couldn’t crack the top 8 fighters in PRIDE today, reflects badly on the superiority of the PRIDE HW division???

    What a joke…

  25. dino says:

    Nice head kick.

    Really didn’t like the couple punches to the unconscious Salmon though. I know the ref is the one who stops the fight, but I dislike seeing fighters unconscious get drilled a couple times before the ref can jump in there.

  26. Fighter’s job is to fight, ref’s job is to stop the fight. At the speed everything’s going you don’t know if the guy is gonna stay down or pop back up again like a jack in the box. Rashad Evans didn’t watch the whole thing over and over in slow motion like we did, so cut him some slack :-p

  27. The Gaijin says:

    “Good GOD, Rogan. How can he claim it is STUPID for Herring to constantly give up his back when it seemed obbvious from the very start that O’Brien doesn’t have a clue how to deal with it, i.e; making it the quickest way back up for Heath? It was the only half way positive thing Herring did in this fight, really.”

    IIRC Herring has always used “giving up his back” as a way to work defensively on the ground…usually with decent success. In fact, I believe he was able to reverse positions on Fedor a few times in their fight and if he had a few more minutes left in the round could have started to do some real damage – too bad he’d absorbed FAR too much prior to that.

  28. mike sawyer says:

    Heath had a torn MCL….at least that is what Joe Rogan is reporting on the UG….

  29. Shannon says:

    What was the song Heath Herring entered to?

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