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Herring a New Man for Lesnar Bout
When your career is studded with high-profile opponents and you've
tangled with the best in the world, and beaten some of them, it's
easy to become complacent. But for Heath Herring (Pictures), the journey to an elusive
championship has taken a stark turn thanks to a new conditioning
regimen and the renewed confidence it brings.
With a record of 28-13 (1 NC), Herring, a longtime staple of the Pride organization, takes on Brock Lesnar (Pictures) Aug. 9 in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As the co-main event underneath the Georges St. Pierre (Pictures)-Jon Fitch (Pictures) welterweight title bout, the two heavyweights offer up a compelling clash of backgrounds, and resumes, that makes for a virtual coin flip considering the disparities in experience.
For while Lesnar, 1-1, is a physical specimen, a former NCAA champ and a seeming caricature of what the casual fan would think a mixed martial artist should be, Herring learned the game coming up the hard way, emerging from the anonymity of the small stateside shows as a viable product with hard-nosed wins against guys he wasn't supposed to beat. He learned his lessons in the relentless proving ground of Pride, establishing his name with wins over Tom Erikson (Pictures), Mark Kerr (Pictures) and Igor Vovchanchyn (Pictures).
Now that he's in the UFC, and in better shape than ever, he feels it's his time to make a serious run.
Training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and other locales, "The Texas Crazy Horse" is preparing to take on a 265-pound physical marvel in Lesnar, who looked impressive against Frank Mir (Pictures) in February before being submitted via kneebar in 90 seconds of furious action. It was Lesnar's UFC debut, and he looked equal parts fearsome debutante and unschooled practitioner.
It's Herring's job to write the next chapter, and he plans on taking the supersized wrestling powerhouse out, as he's done before against bigger guys.
"Training's been going good. I'm at three or four different places in Vegas," Herring said. "I've got Mike Whitehead (Pictures) helping me, [muay Thai trainer] Rob Kaman is coming up, and I'm at Couture's with that crew over there. Randy's been helping me with some different things."
Couture said Herring came in with a clear idea of how to approach the Lesnar fight.
"He's come into the gym to get some bigger partners and get some wrestling, a little mat time with some wrestlers," Couture said. "He's been great, sometimes a little stubborn in that he has a clear picture of what he wants to do and how he sees the fight going. We have to work on him sometimes to get him to see a little different perspective and potentially see that something could work a different way. But I think overall, he's working hard. He's got a good head on his shoulders."
The multiple-time UFC champion described Herring as a "wide-open fighter" who will let it all hang out against Lesnar.
"I think he sees this as a potential fight that he can win if he sticks to some certain skill sets, and he has a pretty clear picture of what that is in his head," Couture said. "For me or somebody to come in and say, ‘You can do this and this might happen' and ‘You should work on this position in case this happens,' he's like ‘no, no.' He's pretty set on how he sees it and what he wants to do, which is fine. It's great. It's his fight. He's the one that has to go out there."
Although the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Herring is rarely the smaller man in a fight, Lesnar's strength is his greatest asset. It's the kind of deficit Herring faced in his biggest wins, particularly when he beat Erikson, a 280-pound wrestler who, in the mid- to late-1990s, was widely regarded as perhaps the toughest guy you could fight anywhere.
Unknown and unfazed, Herring took Erikson out with a rear-naked choke. It's almost as though the bigger his opponents get, the better Herring performs.
"That was my second fight in Pride. When they offered the fight to us, I knew it would be something I could do," he said.
Since that signature win, Herring has had mixed success against the top heavies. He's fought UFC heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) three times, losing two decisions and once by choke.
But even then, he's seen the glimpse of what could have been. In his second UFC bout in July 2007, his rubber match with Nogueira saw him stun the Brazilian with a booming kick to the head in the opening round, but, true to form, Nogueira recovered and rallied for the victory by decision. It was an improvement over his UFC debut in January of that year, where Herring was taken down and shut down by Jake O'Brien in a grappling-heavy snoozer that saw little of the fire that made him a fan favorite in Pride.
Herring has also fought top foes like Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) and Mirko Filipovic (Pictures), losing by TKO to both.
But he insists he's a new man now. And off the heels of his gutty decision over dangerous Cheick Kongo (Pictures) in March, where he battled to the wire and pulled out a tough victory, Herring feels he's got the kind of top-notch conditioning he never had before.
"Tony Aponte is one of my best trainers and my closest friends," Herring said of his new strength and conditioning coach, whom he credits with helping him drop weight and improve his stamina. "He's just amazing. The body transformation is incredible."
Usually hovering around the 265-pound heavyweight limit, Herring now fights at 15 or more pounds below that. He's noticeably more toned, and, as the Kongo fight demonstrated, less prone to running out of gas down the stretch, which cost him in the third Nogueira fight and others.
Aponte oversees Herring's diet and conditioning regimen, and has overseen the regimen of several other top fighters in these areas, including UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn (Pictures). For him, Herring is a project with a big upside, even against Lesnar, whose overpowering strength and expectable improvement over the Mir fight make the bout a compelling one on a very stacked card.
"A lot of guys, their training is there, but their nutrition is not," Aponte said. "What they're doing is putting the body into ketosis and weakening themselves. They're losing weight but losing muscle with it. That's why they'll go a round or two, then gas out. B.J. Penn is an example of that. I think the questions of his cardio are pretty much ended. The last round Heath went with Nogueira, he looked better than the first round of the Nogueira fight."
Aponte said that while the two got together coming into the Kongo fight, Herring still hasn't reached his full physical potential, but he's getting better as the team gels and the new regimen of diet and conditioning takes effect.
"I got him ready, but we didn't have a lot of time for the Kongo fight and that turned out successful," Aponte said. "He's turned himself around. He was in terrible shape before. He was really lethargic, a lot slower. I got together with Rob Kaman and what I specialize in is getting the athlete superman strong. I measure caloric intake and try to get them leaner and stronger. His body fat was about 28 percent before, but when he fought Kongo it was about 13 percent. He was 260 before. Now he‘s about 251, with 10 percent body fat. He's in the best shape of his life."
Herring expects that Lesnar won't change too much from the game plan against Mir. Essentially, aim to overpower him, take him down and deliver a frantic blitz of punches, hammerfists, and the kind of ruckus that the UFC brought Lesnar in to create. In a way, it's a redux of Herring facing intimidating powerhouse grapplers like Erikson and Kerr, guys he was able to outthink and defuse before stopping them.
"Brock did exactly what I expected him to do against Mir. He came out, ran out and grabbed Mir and took him down and beat him down," Herring said. "I can't expect he is going to do things much different."
That's when being a veteran comes in handy. Despite losing to top-notchers like Emelianenko, Nogueira and Filipovic, there's little that Herring hasn't seen, hasn't been drilled in the grill with, thrown up against or run headlong into in his career. He figures Lesnar's lack of that kind of experience is an advantage for him.
"There's nothing that's been thrown at me that I haven't seen before. It does give you the confidence that you can handle it," he said of his past bouts. "Absolutely. Career-wise, for him, this fight doesn't make any sense. He's one and one. But I want to accomplish things. I want to get to the top of the sport and not have to worry about getting another job. That would be a nice thing to do."
Given Lesnar's explosive style, and Herring's newfound confidence, it should be a lot of fun to watch him try.
With a record of 28-13 (1 NC), Herring, a longtime staple of the Pride organization, takes on Brock Lesnar (Pictures) Aug. 9 in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As the co-main event underneath the Georges St. Pierre (Pictures)-Jon Fitch (Pictures) welterweight title bout, the two heavyweights offer up a compelling clash of backgrounds, and resumes, that makes for a virtual coin flip considering the disparities in experience.
For while Lesnar, 1-1, is a physical specimen, a former NCAA champ and a seeming caricature of what the casual fan would think a mixed martial artist should be, Herring learned the game coming up the hard way, emerging from the anonymity of the small stateside shows as a viable product with hard-nosed wins against guys he wasn't supposed to beat. He learned his lessons in the relentless proving ground of Pride, establishing his name with wins over Tom Erikson (Pictures), Mark Kerr (Pictures) and Igor Vovchanchyn (Pictures).
Now that he's in the UFC, and in better shape than ever, he feels it's his time to make a serious run.
Training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and other locales, "The Texas Crazy Horse" is preparing to take on a 265-pound physical marvel in Lesnar, who looked impressive against Frank Mir (Pictures) in February before being submitted via kneebar in 90 seconds of furious action. It was Lesnar's UFC debut, and he looked equal parts fearsome debutante and unschooled practitioner.
It's Herring's job to write the next chapter, and he plans on taking the supersized wrestling powerhouse out, as he's done before against bigger guys.
"Training's been going good. I'm at three or four different places in Vegas," Herring said. "I've got Mike Whitehead (Pictures) helping me, [muay Thai trainer] Rob Kaman is coming up, and I'm at Couture's with that crew over there. Randy's been helping me with some different things."
Couture said Herring came in with a clear idea of how to approach the Lesnar fight.
"He's come into the gym to get some bigger partners and get some wrestling, a little mat time with some wrestlers," Couture said. "He's been great, sometimes a little stubborn in that he has a clear picture of what he wants to do and how he sees the fight going. We have to work on him sometimes to get him to see a little different perspective and potentially see that something could work a different way. But I think overall, he's working hard. He's got a good head on his shoulders."
The multiple-time UFC champion described Herring as a "wide-open fighter" who will let it all hang out against Lesnar.
"I think he sees this as a potential fight that he can win if he sticks to some certain skill sets, and he has a pretty clear picture of what that is in his head," Couture said. "For me or somebody to come in and say, ‘You can do this and this might happen' and ‘You should work on this position in case this happens,' he's like ‘no, no.' He's pretty set on how he sees it and what he wants to do, which is fine. It's great. It's his fight. He's the one that has to go out there."
Although the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Herring is rarely the smaller man in a fight, Lesnar's strength is his greatest asset. It's the kind of deficit Herring faced in his biggest wins, particularly when he beat Erikson, a 280-pound wrestler who, in the mid- to late-1990s, was widely regarded as perhaps the toughest guy you could fight anywhere.
Unknown and unfazed, Herring took Erikson out with a rear-naked choke. It's almost as though the bigger his opponents get, the better Herring performs.
"That was my second fight in Pride. When they offered the fight to us, I knew it would be something I could do," he said.
Since that signature win, Herring has had mixed success against the top heavies. He's fought UFC heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) three times, losing two decisions and once by choke.
But even then, he's seen the glimpse of what could have been. In his second UFC bout in July 2007, his rubber match with Nogueira saw him stun the Brazilian with a booming kick to the head in the opening round, but, true to form, Nogueira recovered and rallied for the victory by decision. It was an improvement over his UFC debut in January of that year, where Herring was taken down and shut down by Jake O'Brien in a grappling-heavy snoozer that saw little of the fire that made him a fan favorite in Pride.
Herring has also fought top foes like Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) and Mirko Filipovic (Pictures), losing by TKO to both.
But he insists he's a new man now. And off the heels of his gutty decision over dangerous Cheick Kongo (Pictures) in March, where he battled to the wire and pulled out a tough victory, Herring feels he's got the kind of top-notch conditioning he never had before.
"Tony Aponte is one of my best trainers and my closest friends," Herring said of his new strength and conditioning coach, whom he credits with helping him drop weight and improve his stamina. "He's just amazing. The body transformation is incredible."
Usually hovering around the 265-pound heavyweight limit, Herring now fights at 15 or more pounds below that. He's noticeably more toned, and, as the Kongo fight demonstrated, less prone to running out of gas down the stretch, which cost him in the third Nogueira fight and others.
Aponte oversees Herring's diet and conditioning regimen, and has overseen the regimen of several other top fighters in these areas, including UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn (Pictures). For him, Herring is a project with a big upside, even against Lesnar, whose overpowering strength and expectable improvement over the Mir fight make the bout a compelling one on a very stacked card.
"A lot of guys, their training is there, but their nutrition is not," Aponte said. "What they're doing is putting the body into ketosis and weakening themselves. They're losing weight but losing muscle with it. That's why they'll go a round or two, then gas out. B.J. Penn is an example of that. I think the questions of his cardio are pretty much ended. The last round Heath went with Nogueira, he looked better than the first round of the Nogueira fight."
Aponte said that while the two got together coming into the Kongo fight, Herring still hasn't reached his full physical potential, but he's getting better as the team gels and the new regimen of diet and conditioning takes effect.
"I got him ready, but we didn't have a lot of time for the Kongo fight and that turned out successful," Aponte said. "He's turned himself around. He was in terrible shape before. He was really lethargic, a lot slower. I got together with Rob Kaman and what I specialize in is getting the athlete superman strong. I measure caloric intake and try to get them leaner and stronger. His body fat was about 28 percent before, but when he fought Kongo it was about 13 percent. He was 260 before. Now he‘s about 251, with 10 percent body fat. He's in the best shape of his life."
Herring expects that Lesnar won't change too much from the game plan against Mir. Essentially, aim to overpower him, take him down and deliver a frantic blitz of punches, hammerfists, and the kind of ruckus that the UFC brought Lesnar in to create. In a way, it's a redux of Herring facing intimidating powerhouse grapplers like Erikson and Kerr, guys he was able to outthink and defuse before stopping them.
"Brock did exactly what I expected him to do against Mir. He came out, ran out and grabbed Mir and took him down and beat him down," Herring said. "I can't expect he is going to do things much different."
That's when being a veteran comes in handy. Despite losing to top-notchers like Emelianenko, Nogueira and Filipovic, there's little that Herring hasn't seen, hasn't been drilled in the grill with, thrown up against or run headlong into in his career. He figures Lesnar's lack of that kind of experience is an advantage for him.
"There's nothing that's been thrown at me that I haven't seen before. It does give you the confidence that you can handle it," he said of his past bouts. "Absolutely. Career-wise, for him, this fight doesn't make any sense. He's one and one. But I want to accomplish things. I want to get to the top of the sport and not have to worry about getting another job. That would be a nice thing to do."
Given Lesnar's explosive style, and Herring's newfound confidence, it should be a lot of fun to watch him try.
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