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Brock Lesnar to face Heath Herring at UFC 87 in Minnesota

Filed under: Ultimate Fighting

The UFC officially announced this week that Brock Lesnar will face Pride veteran Heath Herring at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy.

Lesnar was originally scheduled to face Mark "The Hammer" Coleman, but the UFC Hall of Famer went down with a knee injury during training.

Herring has been something of a mixed bag since coming to the UFC from Japanese arch-rival Pride. He lost an absolutely awful fight to relative no-name Jake O'Brien at UFC Fight Night 8, but looked close to finishing heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 73 before foolishly allowing Big Nog back on his feet, where he was able to control the action for the next two rounds and win via unanimous decision.

Prior to his debut in the UFC, Herring may have been best known to U.S. fans for a fight that ended before it started. During a staredown for a K-1 fight, his opponent Yoshihiro Nakao gave him a kiss on the lips, which offended Herring so much that he coldcocked Nakao with one punch. You can see a 13 second clip of the confrontation here:

Homophobic tendencies aside, Herring is probably a more dangerous opponent for Lesnar than Coleman. He's got a more well-rounded MMA game, better cardio than the 43-year-old UFC Hall of Famer, and was once considered a top contender to the Pride heavyweight belt owned by Fedor Emelianenko. If Lesnar can beat the Texas Crazy Horse, it will immediately establish him as a legitimate top 10 heavyweight. But I'd say the odds are against him.