I was just watching UFC Unleashed on Spike and Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira vs Heath Herring was on; man, it was frustrating to watch.  I didn't like the fight since it was announced. This was to be the third time the two fighters were going to meet and there was completely no point to it. Nogueira already had with a one sided decision win and a submission victory over Herring.  What was the point? To put Nogueira over to US fans? Herring looked like an amature fighter that he's always been in his debut against Jake O'Brian and in all his other fights for that matter. It's disgusting to see his STILL sloppy striking, that's after all those years of supposed striking training in Holland. Bleh...

Herring is big/heavy, strong and wild. It can be tough to fight someone like that. But that's how he got by in all his fights. Let's go over some of his big fights starting in Pride.

vs Willie Peters - scrub from Rings with zero ground game.

vs Tom Erikson - the only fight where herring was actually smaller than his opponent, but so what? He was getting dominated and landed a lucky knee. Erikson never amounted to anything spectacular.

vs Enson Enuoe - we're talking about Enson's next fight after Igov Vovchanchyn's disturbing beating and doubling Enson's head in size from swelling.

vs Vitor Belfort - Herring was fighting a light heavy and couldn't even do anything to him

vs Mark Kerr - same as Erikson fight, get beat on and land a lucky knee

vs Rogdrigo Nogueira (first match) - you know, lots of people at the time called it the greatest heavyweight fights, i beg to differ. It was all Nogueira beating on Herring, standing and on the ground. Herring showed some explosiveness in his escapes - thats's it.

vs Igor Vovchanchyn - ya, he got Vovchanchyn down at the beginning of every round and sat on top of him taking a nap. Vovchanchyn came a way unscathed after that lay and pray.

vs Fedor Emelianenko - it was painful to watch because Fedor was hitting him so hard and landing most of the vicious ground and pound ever seen to date.

vs Mirko CroCop Filipovic - again, his takedowns were sloppy, his stand up was sloppy. CroCop liver kicked him into submission.

vs Gan McGee - "please, make this amature big sloppy loof night stop!!!" i kept thinking when i made myself watch this atrosity of a fight. It was a crime against what MMA. Never watch that one.

vs Nogueira (second fight) - a replay of the first, Nogueira dominating up and down and making him tap with the anaconda choke. Herring again showed nothing.

vs ...aah, what's the point...

My point is that this guy never amounted to anything and rode the hype of his stupid hairdo's and a few lucky breaks. But fight in and fight out, his striking never improved, he's takedown defense never got better, he's takedowns never got less sloppy. A shame really.

I'm not sure what UFC was thinking after keeping him on a contract after the Jake O'Brian fight. I know fighters have off days, but there were zero glimpses of any hope of any improvement...ever.