As for Jake O’Brien, the 22-year-old Indiana fighter with the undefeated record, he gets the opportunity to try and stop a veteran and make a name for himself in the heavyweight division. With the addition of Mirko Filipovic (Pictures), Randy Couture (Pictures) and Herring, plus contenders Andrei Arlovski (Pictures), Brandon Vera (Pictures) and possibly O’Brien, the UFC heavyweight division and Sylvia’s list of opponents just got a whole lot more interesting.
Herring carries a MMA record of 26-11-0 (1 NC). “The Texas Crazy Horse” has made the move from coach Cor Hemmers and Team Golden Glory in Holland back home to the U.S. and to the Las Vegas Combat Club training under Ricardo Pires.
Heath began fighting in small shows in his home state of Texas, including the Unified Shoot Wrestling Federation (fought USWF leader Evan Tanner (Pictures) twice) and the World Vale Tudo Federation in Colorado. In 1999 Heath fought 13 times in a span of just five months. He competed in three four-man tournaments (Super Brawl and the Bas Rutten (Pictures) Invitational) and two eight-man WVC tournaments, advancing to the final bout in all five events.
Herring fought for the PRIDE Fighting Championships from 2000 through 2004. He took on the very best the promotion had to offer including Tom Erikson (Pictures), Vitor Belfort (Pictures), “Minotauro” Nogueira, Igor Vovchanchyn (Pictures), Fedor and Mirko “Cro Cop.” In the end, Herring finished his PRIDE stint with a 12-5-0 record.
He moved to K-1 in 2005 and fought three bouts. The infamous “kiss bout” took place on New Year’s Eve of ’05 and made Heath an instant celebrity with thousands of Internet downloads. He finished his K-1 stretch with a stoppage of Gary Goodridge (Pictures) last March.
O’Brien is a life-long MMA fan and says he knew he was going to be a fighter in his preteens. He wrestled throughout high school (won three state championships) and took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing at the age of 18. He wrestled at Purdue University (home of MMA veteran Tom Erikson (Pictures)) for two years.
Jake trains out of the Integrated Fighting Academy with veteran Jason Godsey (Pictures) under the direction of trainers Keith Palmer and Pat McPherson. He is 9-0-0 as a pro and 5-0 as an amateur. O’Brien currently holds the Legends of Fighting heavyweight championship and the United Fight League heavyweight belt.
O’Brien, a Chicago NAGA tournament champion, fought in local Indiana shows before turning pro to start 2006. In his debut O’Brien stopped Kristof Midoux (Pictures) with strikes and returned in November to hand a decision loss to Josh Shockman.
O’Brien has good wrestling skills and will work for takedowns to employ his ground-and-pound game, but he cannot match the experience Herring brings to the cage. Granted Herring won’t be able to employ the knees to the head he was used to scoring with in PRIDE, but Heath had spent significant time in the cage prior to fighting in Japan.
He knows how to adapt and he appears hungry to win and perform well at home. Look for Heath to be explosive early and outwork the youthful but determined O’Brien. Herring by TKO.