Brock Lesnar to Fight Heath Herring.

**Kambei Shimada** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 11:45am

- HEATH HERRING TO FACE BROCK LESNAR AT UFC 87
Saturday, May 24, 2008 - by Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com

MMAWeekly.com has confirmed that Heath Herring has agreed to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 87 on Aug. 9 when the Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its debut in Minneapolis, Minn.

Lesnar was originally slated to face UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman in the main event of UFC 87. Coleman, however, suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in training, which will sideline him for at least six weeks. He was forced to withdraw from the bout with Lesnar due to the injury.

Herring has been on a roller coaster ride since his UFC debut in January of 2007. The former Pride heavyweight title contender has gone 2-2 in the Octagon, most recently defeating Cheick Kongo at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio.

Lesnar had a less than stellar Octagon debut, losing to former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir via kneebar at UFC 81 in Las Vegas earlier this year.

With the withdrawal of Coleman, the UFC acted swiftly, signing a new main event bout with welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, fresh off winning the title at UFC 82, making the first defense of his second reign as champion when he faces No. 1 contender Jon Fitch.
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Anyone alse think Lesnar got a raw deal with this one? Another loss could seriously damage Lesnars chances of ever getting a title shot in the UFC.

Views?

**Rolling Stoned** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 11:49am

I'll take Lesnar due to the fact that Herring's ground game has gotten progressively worse since his days in Pride. The Kongo fight was some ugly, ugly stuff. Herring will need some technique to offset Lesnar's strength, and I don't think he has it.

**cyrijl** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 12:20pm

Damn. Ima have to give this to Lesnar. If Herring's striking was cleaner, he might do it, but from the last fights I have seen him in, he just throws bombs (thanks goldie)

**The Question** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 12:35pm

This fight is going to suck for everyone involved, but mostly, for the people watching.

**T3hJudoChop** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 12:41pm

As long as Lesnar doesn't slip him the tongue, I think Lesnar takes it. But who knows. Maybe Herring learned a thing or two from his last fights and realized that a person needs to train takedown defense instead of just complaining about being taken down.

**selfcritical** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 12:41pm

Herring hits pretty damn hard- too bad he'll be on his feet for all of five seconds.

**Nathan McScary** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 2:16pm

The UFC wants Lesnar to succeed baaaaad. You can tell that they are bothered by the fact that they see themselves as the best MMA org on the planet, but have virtually no elite-level homegrown heavyweights. The UFC would love nothing more than for Lesnar to become a top dog they could call their own.

The UFC wants him to face top competition to speed up this process of credibility. However, they know that they can't put him up against a top level striker, because they will just sprawl, and out strike him. If they put him up against another accomplished grappler, he will just end up getting submitted again. Because Brock's only real strength is his size wrestling, they put him up against a smaller, aging, wrestler (Coleman), so that Brock can out wrestle and pound him out. Coleman drops out, so they just find another big name wrestler that the larger and stronger Lesnar has a chance at beating.

**G-Off** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 3:08pm

Originally Posted by Nathan McScary

The UFC wants Lesnar to succeed baaaaad. You can tell that they are bothered by the fact that they see themselves as the best MMA org on the planet, but have virtually no elite-level homegrown heavyweights. The UFC would love nothing more than for Lesnar to become a top dog they could call their own.

The UFC wants him to face top competition to speed up this process of credibility. However, they know that they can't put him up against a top level striker, because they will just sprawl, and out strike him. If they put him up against another accomplished grappler, he will just end up getting submitted again. Because Brock's only real strength is his size wrestling, they put him up against a smaller, aging, wrestler (Coleman), so that Brock can out wrestle and pound him out. Coleman drops out, so they just find another big name wrestler that the larger and stronger Lesnar has a chance at beating.

The thing is, how many elite or even good strikers in HW can sprawl effectively against Lesnar? His wrestling is top-notch and the guy's a beast. True, a striker might have a change since we haven't seen Lesnar's chin tested, but I don't think anyone in the UFC Heavyweights can stop Lesnar's takedowns. It's a weak division, after all. The main problem is, of course, his sub defense. Given what Herring showed against Kongo in terms of ground game...this one's Lesnar's easily. The only question is if he has enough head and arm movement to avoid being controlled on the ground, in order to use GnP.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 3:27pm

This fight is going to suck mammoth balls, and I feel sorry for Lesnar. If he wins (which he has a good chance of), people will say it was a crappy win (and to be honest Herring's latest performances have been less than stellar... meaning, pretty fucking crappy.) And if he loses, his potential will surely be called into question (losing to Mir was one thing, losing to Herring after the Herring-Kongo narcoleptic poopfest, that'll suck.)