There have been conflicting reports since the evening of weigh-ins for UFC 87 regarding whether or not Heath Herring or his team made disparaging remarks towards Brock Lesnar prior to their fight. Lesnar and UFC prez Dana White say there were, while Herring has denied saying anything derogatory about the former wrestler (or any of his previous opponents, for that matter).
One thing which neither side has disputed to this point was the fact that Herring refused to walk out to the cage before Lesnar when asked by UFC execs. Herring even said as much on the August 12th episode of Sherdog's "Beatdown" radio show.
"Oh, absolutely. When I got the call about that, I was actually surprised. I thought it was really, really disrespectful. I think I definitely earned the right to walk out second. I mean, had Lesnar won his last fight and we were fighting in his hometown, I don't think there would have even been anything at all about that. But the fact was that he hadn't won, I had won my last fight against Kongo, and I think we had earned the right to walk out second at that point."
But just yesterday, Herring was quoted in a piece on MMAJunkie roundly denying anything of the sort.
Herring also denied reports that he requested he not be forced to walk to the cage ahead of the hometown-hero Lesnar.
"I never even had a discussion with [the UFC] about anything," Herring insisted. "I'll be honest. You bringing that up is the first I've heard of it."
I have to say that I believed Herring when he said in the Sherdog interview that he hadn't trash-talked Lesnar. He sounded sincere, and he was open and honest about the entrance situation (which I agreed with him about). Now this comes out and it just makes him sound deceptive and more likely guilty of making the statements Lesnar and White accused him of in the first place.
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