Herring leaves Pride for k-1

[RedHawk]

Hate to see him go. MMa weekly says that he will be fighting Sam Greco in the K-1 NYE show.


http://www.mmaweekly.com/

[( o Y o )]

Cool news because I`ll be there, and I always love seeing Greco in the ring....

But unless K-1 have some serious plans for ROMANEX and bad move from Herring I think.

[Grant Ellis]

He really has noone left in PRIDE to fight.
He rematched Nogueira and lost. Cro-cop is the biggest danger in the HW division. If Fedor beat Coleman, Randleman, and is all Nogueira can handle then Heath probably couldn't beat him in a rematch.

However, if K-1 owns ROTR, and pays close to the same, and has yet to establish a dominant HW force, Heath might do well there.

He could fight in ROMANEX or ROTR. It'll be neat, plus he might not need to fight just for money now, and he can just get himself financially secured.

Greco, Lyoto, Don Frye, JLB, Sylvester Terkay, Goodridge, Cabbage, John Marsh, that stunning Japanese wrestler who won recently, maybe Ignashov, maybe Ricco Rodriguez down the line... all possible fights, and many of those fights Heath would stand a good chance in. Ricco would probably beat him under MMA rules, but he stands a chance to make good money fighting all those names and keeping his record good if he can't beat the elite of the PRIDE Fighting Championships.

ANy clue as to how much he has made total since PRIDE 9?

[( o Y o )]

However, if K-1 owns ROTR,

"Officially" the ROTR was a one off that they have yet to decide if they will continue backing or not.

[FieldingMellish]

"Officially" the ROTR was a one off that they have yet to decide if they will continue backing or not.

Interesting. Didn't know that. I'd sort of assumed they were bankrolling ROTR as a way to get into the US market. Seems to make sense given the close links between Hawaii and Japan and the fact there's a godd sized (if rowdy) fan base there for MMA and a lively promotional scene.

Do you think they'll go more 'official' and make this a long term deal?

[FieldingMellish]

He really has noone left in PRIDE to fight.
He rematched Nogueira and lost. Cro-cop is the biggest danger in the HW division. If Fedor beat Coleman, Randleman, and is all Nogueira can handle then Heath probably couldn't beat him in a rematch.

However, if K-1 owns ROTR, and pays close to the same, and has yet to establish a dominant HW force, Heath might do well there.

He could fight in ROMANEX or ROTR. It'll be neat, plus he might not need to fight just for money now, and he can just get himself financially secured.

Greco, Lyoto, Don Frye, JLB, Sylvester Terkay, Goodridge, Cabbage, John Marsh, that stunning Japanese wrestler who won recently, maybe Ignashov, maybe Ricco Rodriguez down the line... all possible fights, and many of those fights Heath would stand a good chance in. Ricco would probably beat him under MMA rules, but he stands a chance to make good money fighting all those names and keeping his record good if he can't beat the elite of the PRIDE Fighting Championships.


Completely agree with (almost) everything you said. Herring has gone a little stale in Pride and has in any case hit the glass celing. He can't realistically beat the big 3 so it makes sense for him to move on.

As for the names you bring up as potential opponents - he's too big for Lyoto and I'm not sure Inoki would want his protege going up against someone that big, with that much talent and experience. Though he'd be perfectly happy to throw plenty of other people to the wolves like that.

Greco, Frye and Goodridge would be interesting fights (though I think Herring could certianly win any of them). I think Herring would waste Terkay (obviously), as well as Cabbage, Le Banner and Marsh. Ignashov would be interesting, particularly in light of what Cro Cop did to Herring.

As for Rodriguez, I think Herring can beat him, particularly in a fight where conditioning is a factor. I think Herring is mentally stronger than Ricco too.

Given K-1's current relationship with Inoki, it also brings up the possibility of a fight with Fujita too. That could be fun. Or possibly Josh Barnett. But since Inoki makes and breaks working relationships like a 6 year old kid makes and breaks friendships we'll have to see.

As for Herring's financial situation, it depends on how sensible he's been with his money really. He's had alot of DSE paydays and one or two main events so he should have done pretty well.

[Cracked_Knuckle]

Herring made it no secret that he wanted to get back to the States, so coupled with the fact he is rather "boxed in" in PRIDE (and wasn't very entertaining in a few of his fights leading up to the Yokoi fight...perhaps being the reason for the.....) and was offered much less money, it is not surprising.

I for one would have been happier to see him in the UFC than K-1 though as I'm still not convinced K-1 will have their MMA shows regularly.

[( o Y o )]

Do you think they'll go more 'official' and make this a long term deal?

I'm really not too sure. I asked a FEG guy that at the GP, and the future of ROMANEX and the best I could get was that there was nothing confirmed about ROTR, and that ROMANEX has never been cancelled as many reported, they just haven't held another show yet is all

[Grant Ellis]

There last one was pretty good, if I do say so.

Lots of classic names, good fighters, and the like.

[( o Y o )]

I agree, ROMANEX was a brillant event considering it was a debut project. That together with ROTR could well turn into a third huge event ( along side PRIDE and UFC ) relatively easily I would think.

[RedHawk]

They have aquired the talent. I believe ROMANEX may soon be as popular as UFC and Pride. As we all know Big names make Big Shows!



Wasn't k1 trying to get Nog to come over?