Heath Herring would like to clarify a few things...
by Zak Woods on Feb 19, 2010 9:02 AM EST
5 comments
Heath Herring made serious waves with his comments regarding the UFC and his pay to ESPN 1080 in Florida and he would like you to know the whole thing was a big misunderstanding:
"I think the whole five Ferrari comment is that at this point in my career, I'm actually making less money than when I was younger and I was 23 years old. Like I said, I've got these business opportunities that have arisen, and it actually makes more sense for me to try to do that financially than try to take the time out and fight. That's the decision I'm being faced with right now." It's obviously a risk that I wrestle with on a daily basis. It's been a very tough decision for me. But with my current contract, I feel like I've hit the glass ceiling, so to speak. It's not that I don't ever want to fight again. But I have to be intelligent with my body and my time, and (if) I can find something that pays off better, I need to go down that road. I've got a lot of scars and wounds but not a lot to show for it. It's like, 'Do you want to keep destroying your body?' I love fighting. But it's like you wake up one day - and I'm almost 32 years old now - and you say, 'What have I really done? What's the legacy I've left for my child and my family, other than do you want to watch me on YouTube? You want to watch me on Spike TV?' It's not really intelligent for me to continue down this road and look up in five or 10 years and be like, 'OK, what did I get here?'"
Can you blame Heath for trying to erase his YouTube legacy? Most U.S. fans know him as the guy who was kissed in Japan.
Usually when a fighter adult person life form says something bad about Dana White there is retribution. And that is exactly what Heath is expecting:
"Obviously, the way that that interview was taken and blown out of context, I think Dana's very vindictive. I think when he gets upset about something, he tries to stick it to whoever."
In this case, it might be smart for White to let it go (how often has that happened?). Herring has been out of fighting for a while and with his contract expiring in April it doesn't really make sense for White to shine bright lights on a guy who will be a free agent. There aren't very many marketable heavyweights, so Herring could have some coin to trade for Strikeforce despite being out of action for a while.
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Mature.
That was one of the more mature things I’ve heard a fighter say in a long time. He realizes his limitations, both physically and financially, and his responsibilities as a family-man, and he’s going to do what he needs to do to take care of both. I’ll never fault him for that.
http://twitter.com/scoozna
True
He should be allowed to move on if they’re not gonna let him fight. Personally I didn’t care for the glass ceiling remarks from a guy who hasn’t changed up his game since he started.
Hopefully he moves on before he gets hurt by the new breed while fighting when his heart’s not in it.
“…at this point in my career, I’m actually making less money than when I was younger and I was 23 years old.”
First of all, I kinda doubt this. He was born in 1978, which means he was 23 in 2001… granted, that was when he fought Big Nog for the first HW title in Pride, but were they really paying him more than $70K to show way back then?
Secondly, when you look at his record, the sad truth is that 2001 was pretty much his peak. He hasn’t been relevant or a even a star in years, but he still expects to get paid like he did way back in his glory days?
I got news for Heath… $70+70K is already way more than he’s been worth for a LONG time. Top contenders who would crush him are getting literally half that much or less… Dos Santos and Velasquez made like $30-35K to show for their last fights, Carwin got only $16K to show for his last fight. My advice would be to count his blessings, collect his paychecks while he still can, and shut up.
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