Ariel Helwani talks to Heath Herring:

Is it possible that you may have fought your last MMA fight?
No, I seriously doubt that; I'm only 31. We'll just see what happens with the way the sport is progressing. Hopefully the purses will get a little bit bigger, and things will go a little bit better that way.
...

Are you happy with the UFC?
It's not that I'm not really happy with the UFC ... It's just, you know, like I said, I think that last fight just took a lot out of me. Now with acting, and things kind of taking off, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. And not necessarily with the UFC. Just with the training ... you know, some of my trainers and things like that. I think I just needed a little time to step back and maybe do some other things for a little bit.

So no timetable in mind for a return?
No, not at all. And the other thing, too, is I know the Velasquez fight a lot of people were saying, 'Oh, it's a great fight.' You know, I've been fighting for 13 years. You see the fight with [Frank] Mir and [Brock] Lesnar and Lesnar just pretty much dominated Mir, knocked him out in the second round, and beat the hell out of [Randy] Couture in the second round. And it's like, Wow, I was the only one who was able to go the full time with that guy. It doesn't really benefit me to go backwards and fight new up-and-comer guys. It's not really what I'm there to do, or what I'm there for.

It's interesting that Herring is basically dropping out of competition at the same time that the UFC heavyweight division is taking off. I wonder if his acting career will be as successful as Roger Huerta's.