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Interview by Mick Hammond - MMAWeekly.com

Heath Herring is one of the top heavyweights in the world. For almost 8 years, the 26-year-old Herring has been competing against some of the toughest competition in MMA. Before joining Pride in 2000, Herring had already fought almost 20 bouts against the likes of Evan Tanner, Travis Fulton, and Bobby Hoffman.

Since then he’s competed 17 times for Pride, facing the toughest they have to offer, becoming the only man to ever defeat Tom Erickson and taking current Pride Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria to the limit of athleticism twice. Herring spoke with MMA Weekly’s Mick Hammond about his recent win against Hirotaka Yokoi at Pride 28, his move back to the US, and what he sees for his future.



MMA Weekly: First off, let’s talk about your fight against Yokoi at High Octane. Going into the fight did you have the mindset of trying to strike with him considering how good he is on the ground?

Heath Herring: Yes, we figured he would try to take the fight to the ground, so we planned to stand up and keep it standing. We did that and then come to find out afterwards in his post-fight interview that he was training on catching my kick and taking me down. We had decided to not throw any kicks going into the fight, so that was kind of funny that he was planning to do that. Realistically the strategy couldn’t have gone any better.

MMA Weekly: During the fight you had Yokoi down and were blasting him with knees and the referee took you off of him and gave you a warning, was it for kneeing to the back of the head?

Heath Herring: The warning I received was for punching to the back of the head. I heard some people there saying that they thought the knees were illegal. There was no comment to me about that. I think the timing on the stop was a little bit suspicious, they waited until he was in trouble. It gave him some time to recover.

MMA Weekly: It was obvious on the PPV that you were unhappy when you were in the corner while the referees were discussing what had happened. What was going on from your point of view at that moment?

Heath Herring: First I was asking what was illegal. The referee was saying that it was punches and I only did that once and I stopped. He started to talk to head referee Shimada and in the background Yokoi obviously fell to the ground and to me looked knocked out and I’m like, “he can’t even stand up” and they didn’t even look over once. I knew that what was going to happen.

MMA Weekly: Then what happened?

Heath Herring: My corner was yelling to at me to settle down, I was worried I was going to miss an opportunity. I calmed myself and then the fight started up again. That’s when he locked me up and I hit him with body shots and he didn’t respond so I backed off. That’s when he shot and I got him on the ground finished it with my knees.

MMA Weekly: Did you feel any sense of urgency when they restarted the fight to take him out as quick as possible and not give him a chance to pull something out of nowhere to beat you?

Heath Herring: Of course, I thought that it was really important with all the hype behind him to finish it off. I still think he’s a good fighter, he’s very dangerous, I don’t mean to downplay his abilities. It was important to me when I came off my loss (to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at Critical Countdown 2004) to be dominant, even after the fact that Pride made me lose 20lbs in 2 weeks, they put me through the wringer on this.

MMA Weekly: You mention that you had to drop 20lbs in two weeks, how did that effect you at all in the ring?

Heath Herring: In the ring I felt quick and felt good. I will say
weighing around 235lbs is a little too light. I was fine at 255lbs but to get the fight I had to lose the weight so I cut out lifting and was watching what I was eating. Considering that I was cutting down 20lbs in just 2 weeks, I felt pretty strong. But it was not where I’d like to fight at, I feel comfortable at 245-255lbs. I think maybe just a little bit of power, but for Yokoi that wasn’t going to be a factor. We weighed in about the same and I’m happy with the end result of the fight, so that’s all that matters.

MMA Weekly: After the fight you did an interesting thing to celebrate, you sprayed Pride Color Commentator Mauro Ranallo with your water bottle as you walked by, what was up with that?

Heath Herring: He dared me to in the interview before the fight. He said I wouldn’t spray him with water and I told him I would so I did it. If you dare me to do something odds are I’ll do it. I really like Mauro, he’s a good guy and has a great sense of humor. It was all in good fun.

MMA Weekly: Recently you made the move from Holland back to the States and joined the Las Vegas Combat Club. Tell us how the move came about.

Heath Herring: I moved out to Vegas in July and have been training with guys there. I needed to get out of Holland and get back into the States. When you’re feeling good and training good it works in your favor, and that’s how I feel in Vegas. I felt confident, strong, and good. I would have love to gone back to Texas, first and foremost, but there is no one there I could have trained with. There is no one there equipped to handle a fighter of my size. That’s one of the reasons I went to Vegas. The transition was really easy for me. Within two weeks I had a regimen and sparring partners set up.

MMA Weekly: How did Vegas come into the equation as a choice?

Heath Herring: Vegas came up with guys coming out to Holland to train with us. They were like, “come out and try it out sometime.” I talked with Ricardo Pires and Sergio Penha (at the LVCC), they are really excited about me being there, they didn’t push me or pressure me at all which made it really nice. Everything clicked so well and it’s been going really good. There’s a lot of stuff going on in Europe right now, so I was ready to get back home. I wanted to be closer to my family, closer to my daughter who is in California. It’s a 4 hour drive from Vegas so if something happens I can be there. It’s been a long time, years, since I’ve been feeling good. I’m still keeping my apartment over there; Netherlands will still be in my life. I love the country and people I hope to maintain those friendships throughout my life.

MMA Weekly: I noticed on the PPV that Bas Rutten ribbed you a little about living in Vegas and it’s reputation. How do you handle that?

Heath Herring: People ask me if I went to Vegas to party, I’ve lived in the party country for four years, I can take it out of my life trust me. People who know me are really understanding of what I do, it’s never been an issue with me, if I’ve got a fight coming up I don’t go out, plain and simple. People know better than to push me into something like that and for the most part everyone understands and lets me do my own thing. I go have my fun, like I just got back home from New Orleans, but there is a time and place for everything.

MMA Weekly: So with your move to Vegas and the LVCC, does that mean you’re no longer a part of Team Golden Glory?

Heath Herring: To be honest I was never really Golden Glory, I was under separate management. So I was never officially Golden Glory. The way it was set up in Holland, Golden Glory represents a management group rather than a fighting team. Most of the guys never trained together. They might come down once in a while, but realistically I didn’t see the guys more than I saw them. Right now I’m still keeping my contacts with Cor Hemmers (stand-up coach) and they may even come out to train there with him. Bas Boon still handles management issues. Not much has changed as far as those relationships go.

MMA Weekly: Well you’ve looked very sharp this year, back to the Herring that once fought for the Pride Heavyweight Title in the eyes of many. So it appears the move to Vegas and the LVCC was just the right thing.

Heath Herring: That’s one of the reasons I made the move. I just was not happy there; I wasn’t liking the fighter I was becoming. I was like “I’ve got to get out of here.” I had some wild fights, and when you’re not happy with everything it can take a toll on your fights. You should not go into a fight against yourself. That was one of the main reasons I moved, I feel everything got kicked up into high gear, I feel really good and confident now. Before Pride was jerking me around they were canceling fights and moving them around, it was creating havoc on my training schedule and it plays a lot on your mind a lot. It’s actually what happened with the Cro Cop (Mirko Filipovic) fight, for two weeks before it I had no idea I was fighting him. So when it happened I wasn’t ready mentally for the fight. The same thing when I fought (Giant) Silva on the New Year’s Eve show, the fighter changed 5-6 guys before they settled on him. They gave me his dimensions in meters and kilos, and it sounds a lot different in metric than it does in standard. So when I was in Germany visiting family I started to figure out how big he really was because I sat down and made the conversions and was like “no way this guy is this big.” So when I talked to Pride they tried to settle things more by saying he wasn’t in the kind of condition that I would be in so not to worry, let me tell you I wasn’t quite ready for some one like that at all. I’ve never had anyone take leg shots like he did and keep going. I’m happy I got a win in that one because it was just crazy how it got set up.

MMA Weekly: Speaking of heavyweight fighters, the LVCC has a pretty good heavyweight on their roster along with you.

Heath Herring: Yeah, (UFC Heavyweight Champion) Frank Mir is on the team, but to tell you the truth I’ve not even met Mir yet. I got out here he was taking time off, getting married, and then the motorcycle wreck happened, so I’ve never met the guy. I see it as being a great addition for the both of us having us on the same team. We can help each other with our games and I don’t see any competition there, I only see it as a positive thing for our careers. We are obviously both heavyweights, but we fight in different organizations. He’s UFC, I’m Pride, and there are no plans on us switching so I see it as only a positive influence. The big advantage is you have somebody who can be there whenever. I don’t have to wait around for another heavyweight with good skills to come down to train with me; I have one in the same place. I’m really excited that Sergio and Ricardo are used to cornering a heavyweight in a big fight. Fighters move differently, they know how to handle someone my size because of their experience with Mir, so it’s good all the way around.

MMA Weekly: Let’s talk about what you’ve got lined up for the future. Are you going to take the rest of the year off or do you plan to fight at Shock Wave 2004? After that what do you have in store for us?

Heath Herring: I will say most likely I would want to fight on New Year’s, but it could be against anyone. Right now I’m planning on getting back into a top position. I just want to get back in there and shake things up and see what happens. There’s not anyone in particular that I’m gunning for. I want people to say if about me “he’s fighting then I’m going to watch.” If they want to see the crazy style of the hair, or see me knee someone to death, it doesn’t matter, as long as they want to see me fight. I’m at the level if you make one mistake and things happen, it’s all a matter of not making that first mistake. That’s what I’m going to keep working on, getting sharper and not making any more mistakes and getting back to the top.

MMA Weekly: Before we head out, this year you became immortalized further with your own action figure, what does that feel like?

Heath Herring: I love it, I got one for everybody. Never in a million years did I think I’d become something like that. The video game is great too; my daughter plays it all the time. What I say is it’s another story for the grandkids, telling them about the old days when grandpa was a fighter, it’s something else for them to know who and what I was back in the day.

MMA Weekly: Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans or sponsors you’d like to thank as we close this out?

Heath Herring: Well my sponsors are all in Japan so let’s not worry about them this time. To the fans I say thanks for making my career so long and incredible. I love the responses from the fans, good and bad, their support and criticism helps me get better. I want to thank everybody for the great life I have, that’s due to the fans out there, if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be living this life. Every year the sport gets bigger and better and it’s thanks to the fans, so I want them to know I appreciate everything they do for the sport and me.