Huerta has been out of action since a decision loss to Kenny Florian at UFC 87. It was during this build-up, that Huerta openly questioned the pay scale of the UFC, no doubt endearing him to Dana White. Following the fight, Huerta announced his intentions to take a hiatus from MMA to pursue acting. I would assume this endeared him even more to Dana White, after the Zuffa boys spent years building him into a big name. Huerta was the first UFC fighter to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated in May 2007.

Maynard on the other hand, has been steady and solid, winning 5 in a row…after his first fight after TUF 5 of course. In that fight, Maynard picked up Rob Emerson and slammed him to the mat, giving himself a DDT in the process. See the .gif below; Jake “the Snake” Roberts would have been proud.

It was reported last month that Huerta had signed a 5-fight extension with the UFC, but that is apparently not the case. Had they signed, they would have NEVER gotten out of the deal, just ask Randy Couture.

Acting, is apparently now Huerta’s new priority and career path. He has one fight left on his existing UFC contract which he plans to honor, although that fight, depending on the UFC, could fall anywhere between April 2009 and April 2010. The UFC could choose to drag out his contract and basically sit him on the shelf like they did with Andrei Arlovski.

Arlovski was intent on testing the free agent waters before re-signing with the UFC, and the company basically attempted to bury him before letting him go. They sat him out for about a year, even after he had won his last two fights, and then stuck him on the undercard in a “no win” scenario against a no-name wrestler, hoping the wrestler would beat him. No such luck.

Time will tell what route they take with Huerta. If they really believe he will become an actor, they may book his last fight within a few months. If they think he’s just testing the fight market, they’ll sit him. Either way, it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

UFC 87 was this past Saturday, and there were a couple of super impressive performances, notably Georges St. Pierre and Brock Lesnar.

St. Pierre silenced (or should have at this point) his critics by systematically dismantling the top contender to his 170lb crown, Jon Fitch. Fitch never seemed to really threaten St. Pierre, and was dropped about 4-5 times in the fight from punches and knees…that can’t be good for Fitch’s noodle, but he hung in there, and he was true to his word, he’s a “blood and guts” type of guy.  He fights and claws for everything he gets.  In the end though, he was simply outclassed by a better fighter.  St. Pierre imposed his will and the only thing he couldn’t do, was put his gi on after the fight.

Now that St. Pierre has dominated the guy who dominated everyone else, who else is there?

BJ Penn.  More on that later.

Brock Lesnar showed great improvement in his second trip in the cage, dominating the very tough Heath Herring over three rounds. Unlike his spastic-like offense against Frank Mir in his debut, Lesnar paced himself and didn’t blow his wad. Next up on Lesnar’s to-do list is submissions.

Kenny Florian defeated home town boy Roger Huerta by sticking to his system and not getting caught up in an emotional brawl. Each time Kenny rocked Roger, Roger would get riled up, but unlike past opponents, Kenny found a way to suppress Huerta’s rage until it passed. Look for Kenny to get a title shot, after BJ Penn’s foray back to 170lbs.

In my near-favorite bout of the night, Rob Emerson scored a surprising TKO victory over Manny Gamburyan twelve seconds into the fight. I dislike Gamburyan for a few reasons, his attitude and his cheap shot on Jeff Cox.  Surely one of the more satisfying smashings I’ve ever seen.

In the televised opening bout, Damian Maia wore down a very game and scrappy Canadian Jason MacDonald and scored a 3rd round choke out. MacDonald came right at Maia and took him to the ground, which surely must have surprised Maia.

Oh, and Cheik Kongo won by TKO over Dan Evenson…Kongo is one scary dude, but not a great interview

All in all, an excellent night of fights.  The rest of the results are listed below.

Check out Fitch’s face!! Like he had been through a meat grinder…and the guy keeps on fighting.  I feel bad for his next opponent.

UFC 87 RESULTS:

Georges St. Pierre def. Jon Fitch by unanimous decision (50-43, 50-44, 50-44)
Brock Lesnar def. Heath Herring by unanimous decision (30-26 on all cards)
Rob Emerson def. Manny Gamburyan by KO at :12, R1
Kenny Florian def. Roger Huerta by unanimous decision (30-27 on all cards)
Demian Maia def. Jason MacDonald by submission (rear naked choke) at 2:44, R3
Tamdan McCrory def. Luke Cummo by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
Cheick Kongo def. Dan Evensen by TKO (strikes on the ground) at 4:55, R1
Jon Jones def. Andre Gusmao by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
Chris Wilson def. Steve Bruno by Unanimous Decision (30-27) on all judges score cards
Ben Saunders def. Ryan Thomas by submission (armbar) at 2:28, R2

Roger Huerta will have one fight left on his UFC contract after this weekend’s number one contender match with Kenny Florian.  Fighters with one fight left do not get title shots, as per UFC policy.  See: Brandon Vera.

Huerta recently went on a rant about UFC’s pay so this news is hardly a surprise.  Reportedly, Huerta is looking for something in the neighborhood of six-figure guaranteed pay day per fight, as well as a cut of the pay-per-view sales.  That deal would be better than current UFC 155lb Champion BJ Penn’s contract, so you know that’s not going to fly.  The UFC’s stance is that they put the promotional machine behind Huerta and built him up by hand-picking the “right” opponents (with the exception being Clay Guida of course) and Huerta wouldn’t be where he is today without them.

The UFC protecting its “golden boy” fighters? No… You mean just because they view Huerta as the key to the Latino market and Michael Bisping as the key to the UK market they are careful in who they fight?  Hogwash.  Smart business though.

Should Huerta win, it would put everyone in quite the pickle, since he will not get a crack at BJ Penn unless he re-signs, and it looks like he’s miles apart at this time.

Top UFC Lightweight contender Roger Huerta opened a lot of eyes in his recent interview with FIGHT! Magazine.  Here are a few snips from the article:

Huerta’s disillusionment with the UFC began when he did press tours for his employer in Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, and London and received a $50 per diem for his troubles. It sounds like a a good deal until you factor in time away from training, friends, and family, days often stretch twelve hours or more, and an exchange rate of one UK pound for two American dollars. “Why do you think I don’t do PR for the UFC any more?” he asks.

He argues that many UFC fighters barely make enough to cover their training expenses. He brings up teammate Keith Jardine repeatedly, incensed that a main event fighter is working for ten and ten- $10k to show and 10k to win – while his opponent regularly makes ten times as much.

“The truth is, I don’t really care if I fight in the UFC or somewhere else,” Huerta says. The fighter says he understands that Zuffa has to keep an eye on the bottom line, but he wants to work, “For a company that is as loyal to me as I am to them.”

Wow.  Them are some pretty strong words.  Maybe there’s something to the ever-increasing list of disgruntled fighters making their way out of the UFC.  The UFC is considered the major league of mixed martial arts fighting, but unlike other major leagues (at least, on paper) they don’t pay the most.  How much value do you put into exposure versus the money?

The UFC has usually tried to bury fighters who gripe too loud about this, like Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz and Andre Arlovski.  On Arlovski’s way out the door, Zuffa sat him on the bench for almost a year, then stuck him on a preliminary card against a smothering blanket of a fighter.  With Ortiz’s case, they sent their version of a hitman, Lyoto Machida and Machida got the job done.

I really wonder what they’ll do with Huerta.  He’s right though, $50 per diem is an outright joke.

The flip side of the main event will pit top lightweight contenders Kenny Florian against Roger Huerta.  This fight will be very technical and calculated speed-fest, especially when compared against the other fight.  This will be the UFC’s first card in Minneapolis and they’ve loaded it up with Huerta and Lesnar both “home town” boys, so to speak.  Should be a ring-a-ding-dong-dandy.

I think the winner (between Penn and Sherk)… there’s another fight between Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian, I think the winner of that fight will fight the winner of this fight and let’s say it’s B.J. or Sean (who wins that match-up), I would consider that cleaning out the division. Then I would sit down and talk to them about where they wanted to go from there.

There were rumors the winner of the Lightweight Title fight May 24 at UFC 84 would move up and challenge Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre, but that would be a bit premature. There are still two very valid contenders in Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian. Besides, St. Pierre has Jon Fitch in his crosshairs and he has defeated both Sherk and Penn, with the Sherk fight being quite lop-sided.

Those, my friend, are lofty, lofty goals.

First, standing in his way of a title shot is the increasingly dangerous KenFlo, Kenny Florian.  Second, (damn, that nickname gets worse each time i look at it) he would have to get past either BJ Penn or Sean Sherk for the title.  Third, he would have to clean out the stacked Lightweight division of guys like Gray Maynard, Tyson Griffin, Mac Danzig, Joe Stevenson, Frankie Edgar, Manny Gamburyan, and possibly Diego Sanchez.  Fourth, Clay Guida was clearly getting the better of Huerta in their fight for 13 minutes, until a well-timed knee to the chin sealed the win for Roger.