Heath Herring recovering from injury, disappointment after loss to Brock Lesnar After suffering a brutal pounding in a unanimous-decision loss to the massive Brock Lesnar (2-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) at UFC 87, veteran Heath Herring (28-14 MMA, 2-3 UFC) was left nursing more than just his injuries.
“That overhand right—that shocked the hell out of me,” Herring admitted. “I didn’t see it coming and I got caught with it. That definitely had an effect on the outcome of the fight.”
Lesnar’s heavy right hand dropped Herring and impaired the Texan’s vision throughout the remainder of the contest.
“It hurt me pretty good,” Herring said of the punch. “I wasn’t able to see. Right at the beginning of the fight you’re blind. How much does that affect you? I don’t know. It’s not good.”
The extent of Herring’s eye injury is still not clear. The 30-year-old said he is waiting on more information from his doctors before a course of action for recovery is determined.
“There’s definitely some damage to the eye,” Herring said. “But I think we’re going to be OK. We’re still seeing with the doctors what the final result’s going to be on that.”
The loss was especially disappointing for Herring due to the successful training camp he completed heading into the bout. The “Texas Crazy Horse” was in noticeably better condition than he has arrived in for previous fights.
“That’s the worst part about the fight; I felt in great shape,” Herring said. “I felt my training camp went well.
“You get caught early on and there’s nothing you can do about it. You make do with the cards you’re dealt sometimes. We got dealt some pretty bad ones early on. We tried to stay in the fight and do what we could do.”
Lesnar’s near-taunting celebration has been discussed frequently since Saturday night. Herring said he wasn’t offended by the laughs and gestures.
“[Lesnar] is a pro wrestler,” Herring said. “What do you expect? That’s kind of his shtick. It’s what he does. I figure that’s what everybody expected from him.”
Additionally—despite rumors to the contrary—Herring said there was no pre-fight clash between the two fighters.
“I don’t know if [Lesnar] said something,” Herring said. “I didn’t really have any words with him before the bout. I’ve never even really met the guy.
“I’ve been around this sport for years. I’ve never really done any trash-talking or anything like that before a match. I don’t know where that came from.”
Herring also denied reports that he requested he not be forced to walk to the cage ahead of the hometown-hero Lesnar.
“I never even had a discussion with [the UFC] about anything,” Herring insisted. “I’ll be honest. You bringing that up is the first I’ve heard of it.”
Herring said after the disappointment of the loss that he plans on taking a bit of time off to prepare himself mentally and physically for his next chance in the octagon.
“I’ve got to step back a little bit,” Herring said. “I’ve got some other stuff kind of working on the backburner right now. We’re going to go do some of that stuff and just see how everything pans out.
“I’ve got some acting possibilities. I’m going to try to do some acting a little bit.
“I’m trying to get back to training and do some other things with training.
“It’s just disappointing when you kind of feel like you’ve done everything right and you get some bad luck early on. I’ve got to clean that out a little bit and get refocused. We’ll be back to business before too long I imagine.”
And once Herring does return, Lesnar will be on a list of targets for future opponents.
“We took the best [Lesnar] could give us for 15 minutes, and he couldn’t finish it,” Herring said. “I don’t know what else he’s going to bring to the table to finish me off.
“We took his best shot and went on from there. I’d love for him to take one of mine, and we’ll see how it goes.”
