‘El Matador’ Taking The Bull By The Horns

By:  | Posted: Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at 2:29 pm.

“Out here in the fields I fight for my meals.

I get my back into my living.

I don’t need to fight to prove I’m right.

I don’t need to be forgiven.”

–Baba O’Riley, The Who

Roger Huerta has never had anything handed to him in life; he’s worked for everything he’s ever gotten. For as long as the young Latin American mixed martial artist can remember, he’s had to fight for what others received by entitlement, including respect.

Huerta’s fearless style and ability to tame his opponents earned him the name “El Matador”. Much like his fellow-named fearless bovine-taming counterparts, Huerta doesn’t stand for any bull, garnering him praise for his handling of his opponents and criticism for his comments outside of the cage.

Growing up in an abusive home, Huerta learned how to fight back his tears and emotions as his mother, and then stepmother, relentlessly took out their frustrations caused by Roger’s unfaithful and drug-disposed father, on their innocent young ward with their fists and feet. Even back then, Huerta refused to concede defeat, weathering the strikes and incessant mental chess matches his foes directed at him.

Huerta says the will to survive and the mental fortitude he developed during those dark years comes back out every time the doors of the Octagon close behind him.

When Huerta was hurt badly by Clay Guida late in the second round of their “Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale” bout in December, he switched into the survival mode that helped him soldier through his abusive past. He saw visions of the atrocities that had befallen him as a youngster and used the positive events that occurred more recently, to regain his focus between rounds.

As he had so many times during his childhood, Huerta focused his mind on a good place and his body instinctively followed. Dropping Guida with a knee and forcing his tough opponent to tap out from a rear naked choke less than a minute later, Huerta had won the biggest fight of his MMA career.

Heading into his fight tonight against Kenny Florian, an opponent Huerta calls his toughest yet, at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy in his backyard in Minneapolis, MN, the 25-year-old says that after what he went through growing up, fighting is easy. Living on the streets of Austin, TX for a period in high school after being kicked out of his home by his abusive stepmother, Huerta would often not eat and sleep on the tops of buildings. Although he has made similar statements many times before in reference to his tragic upbringing, Huerta says creative editing on a UFC 87 preview video, making him seem uncharacteristically disrespectful, convoluted his words.

“What I said is that compared to my life growing up, as far as not knowing where I would be sleeping or when I would eat next and the abuse I went through, fighting is a cakewalk. Kenny knows, and his camp knows that I’m not thinking this fight is going to be a cakewalk. I think Kenny is extremely dangerous and very, very skilled,” Huerta explains. “He’s fought for the title and it took Sean Sherk five rounds to beat him. This is just a fight. No matter what happens in a fight, I get to go home and eat and sleep in my own bed in the house I own. That’s a feeling I didn’t know for a lot of years. I am grateful for everything I have and it isn’t in me to be disrespectful or take anything for granted.”

Huerta is finding himself in the unfamiliar battle, defending his image as well as comments he made in a recent interview with Fight! Magazine. In the article, the Business major who attends Augsburg College in Minneapolis expressed dissatisfaction over remuneration for PR he does for the UFC. His sentiments landed the onetime UFC poster boy in hot water with the promotion’s president Dana White.

When asked about the article, by one of the hosts of Hardcore Sports Radio’s “Drive This” earlier this week in Toronto, White called Huerta a “moron” for expecting more than the reported $50 per day the UFC pays its fighters for promotional appearances. White, who handpicked Huerta to be the first UFC fighter to grace the cover of Sport’s Illustrated last May, indicated that other sports figures like boxer Oscar De La Hoya do publicity for free.

Though he wouldn’t qualify his comments regarding the PR work he has done for the UFC, Huerta said the gap between MMA fighters’ salaries compared to those of other athletes, including boxers like De La Hoya, needs to change.

“I know that I can’t fight forever and I pay all of my own expenses like my health insurance which add up. I don’t blame the UFC for being a smart company. They want to keep their revenue high and their expenses low. I’m a business major so I know how it works,” Huerta says. “Everybody knows how successful the company has become and I just think a few things need to change. That’s between fighters and their managers to negotiate and for myself and my manager to negotiate with the company.”

Huerta, who was also quoted in the Fight! article as saying he doesn’t care if he fights for the UFC asserts he was in no way complaining about his contract or the promotion that made him a household name, as some reports have claimed.

“I never wanted what I said to come across as bashing the UFC. If it weren’t for the Fertittas and Dana White, MMA wouldn’t be where it is today and I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Huerta explains. “I am so grateful for the opportunities and the rewards fighting for the UFC has given me.”

Putting the misinterpretation of his comments to bed, Huerta says that his recent decision to join Greg Jackson’s Albuquerque-based team was one of the best moves he has ever made and that he feels his new MMA family has his best interests in mind. With the personal and professional aspects of his life looked after, Huerta is confident he is ready for anything.

“These guys are like my family now. I was blessed to find Team Jackson and to have them welcome me like they did. I think I’m the missing piece to their puzzle as they were to mine. I’ve been training with some phenomenal trainers like Greg Jackson, Mike Winklejohn, John Chaimberg, Phil Nurse, Trevor Whitman and Firas [Zahabi]. My training partners for this camp were all world class too – guys like Georges [St-Pierre], Denis Kang, Nate Marquardt, Rashad Evans, Leonard Garcia, Donald Cerrone and Joey Villasenor – the list reads like the top ranked fighters in each division. I hope I can help my teammates as much as they have me. I ended up adding more spices to my recipe and I learned a lot from everybody I trained with for this fight. I’m ready and I can’t wait to show everyone what I can do.”

Despite a prediction made by Florian’s trainer Mark Della Grotte that his charge is going to charge right through Huerta, “El Matador” says that if his opponent believes his coach’s hype, he’s going to have a long night ahead of him.

“I’ll be the one to tell you right now that that’s not going to happen. If they think [Kenny is going to run right through me] then they’re kidding themselves,” asserts Huerta. “It’s going to be a hard fight for him the same as it’s going to be a hard fight for me. It’s going to be exciting and the fight is going to live up to the hype.”

Looking at tonight’s match up, Huerta thinks that stylistically he matches up very well against Florian but believes that his resolve will prove the difference.

“Kenny is a very good and very disciplined opponent. He always brings a different and well though out game plan into every fight for every opponent he faces. I have to be prepared and watch out for everything he may throw at me,” Huerta says. “He’s a well-rounded fighter who’s a go-getter like me. This fight is going to be determined by who can grind it out the most, who’s been training the hardest and whose conditioning is the best. Whoever makes the least amount of mistakes is going to win.”

Tonight’s match up has long been touted as the bout to determine who will face UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn next at 155 lbs. Huerta says he won’t miss the opportunity to move one step closer to a title shot and that he’ll be fighting like his life is on the line to take the win from Florian.

“Everybody keeps saying that this is the fight that will decide who the number one contender of the UFC’s lightweight division is. I’m treating it like I’m fighting the gatekeeper – the guy in the way of my title-fight,” Huerta says. “I’ve got to beat this guy. I plan to find a way to do it.”

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