UFC 102 Preview: Aaron Simpson Seeks Vicious Finish Against Ed Herman

Keeping with the theme of hometown favorites, Team Quest-trained and The Ultimate Fighter season 3 runner-up Ed Herman (15-7) will take on the explosive, yet inexperienced UFC sophomore Aaron "A-Train" Simpson (5-0) in a middleweight showdown. Herman is coming into this bout with a recent decision win over David Loiseau at UFC 97, but he's 4-4 with the UFC with notable losses to Alan Belcher and Demian Maia in his last three fights. Simpson's most recent performance was against Tim McKenzie at UFN 18 that resulted in a TKO victory at only 1:40 in the first round.

For those of you who haven't heard of Aaron Simpson before, he's a fighter that has benefited from some streaks of luck in his career. His UFN 18 opponent, Tim McKenzie, was supposed to battle David Avellan on the WEC 36 card in November of 2008, but he pulled out due to injury. The WEC came calling for someone to take on Avellan on short notice, and Simpson stepped forward. Eighteen seconds into the first round, Simpson had knocked out Avellan and impressed the crowd at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. 

Simpson took out his next opponent in veteran Tim McKenzie in under two minutes, and after a major shuffle of opponents during the summer months -- the 35-year-old is ready for his sophomore debut in the Octagon against Ed Herman.

Simpson is a former Arizona State University assistant wrestling coach who managed to place at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials. He trains out of Arizona Combat Sports with UFC fighters Ryan Bader, C.B. Dolloway, and Carlos Condit, but he also coached Bader, Dolloway, and Cain Velasquez during his years at ASU. Interestingly enough, his fists have been doing the talking inside the cage as he has 5 knockouts in 5 fights. Solid striking abilities coupled with the type of wrestling credentials he possesses is a dangerous combination for any opponent he should face, and his conditioning only adds to a phenomenal skill-set.

Ed Herman is a bit of a different story. He entered the house on The Ultimate Fighter with a stellar record of 11-3, nine fights more than Simpson has under his belt currently. Even more interesting, Herman had actually beaten some solid competition in Nick Thompson, Dave Menne, and Glover Teixeira before his stint with the UFC. It wasn't a huge surprise that Herman managed to make it into the finals during the third season, but he succumbed to Kendall Grove via an unanimous decision. He was still awarded a contract by Dana White for such an impressive performance.

Herman now sits at 22 fights in his career with a 4-4 record in the UFC. It's still up in the air whether this is a do-or-die match-up for him, but it definitely can't hurt to win impressively against a fairly inexperienced fighter in Simpson. He'll primarily try to use his submission skills coupled with his wrestling to try to defeat Simpson, and his striking has been improving significantly over his past few fights. It isn't at a phenomenal level just yet, but the 28-year-old Herman still has some time to improve upon it. He'll have a slight hometown advantage in this bout, and he does have the Team Quest experience to draw from.

This isn't exactly an easy match-up to break down due to the gap in experience between both fighters. It's tough to gauge a newer fighter in comparison to the competition that his opponent has been facing over the past few years. On paper, Herman is going to have a very tough time in this battle. Simpson should have a wrestling advantage as he coached for nine years, placed at the Olympic trials, and continues to live on the principle that training wrestling everyday should be required for MMA fighters... even if they hold NCAA credentials. He's an absolute load in terms of power and conditioning, but the inexperience of actually being in a lengthy war is the question.

Herman has the submission skills to be a danger on the floor, but his striking remains a mystery. Simpson has blasted through competition easily in his five-fight career, and he has the training partners down at Arizona Combat Sports to simulate much better strikers than that of Herman. Herman's striking is a questionable coming into any fight, but he does have the more experienced and more credentialed wrestlers within his camp. 

It's a tough pick. Simpson's wrestling and striking, on paper, are superior, but Herman has much more experience coupled with decent submission skills. It's definitely an indication that this isn't an easy fight for Herman, and it could be a huge upset waiting to happen. If Herman is, in fact, defeated, I think we can count on the UFC cutting him immediately.