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|  Roger Huerta Article from UFC.com
By Thomas Gerbasi
With four wins, a host of whirlwind publicity tours and a Sports Illustrated cover in the bank for 2007, Roger Huerta would be excused
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if he decided to enjoy the holidays, get fat like the rest of us, and gear up quietly for a run at the lightweight title in 2008.
But if Huerta’s past, both in and out of the Octagon, has shown anything, it’s that his behavior is always far from typical. Hence, his headlining bout on Saturday against fellow rising star Clay Guida, one of those special bouts that pit two up and comers against each other even before they’ve reached championship level. It’s risky, but when you’ve grown up selling rosaries and gum on the streets and had to deal with the spectre of gang violence on a daily basis, facing just one opponent isn’t as bad as you would think it would be.
“I look at Clay as a really good opponent,” said Huerta. “He’s really tough, and we’ve just been training our butts off for this fight. I’m just looking at him, as a fighter, as an individual, in every aspect, and how to pick him apart and beat him. I’m not thinking of anything else but him.”
It’s the type of fight which – if taken by anybody else – would have been met with universal praise. But Huerta, 5-0 in the UFC and 21-1-1 overall, is starting to get the inevitable negative comments from those who go out of the way to find the cloud in the clear blue sky; the ones who equate a Sports Illustrated cover with being the UFC’s protected ‘Golden Boy’, with critics pointing to the fact that all of Huerta’s five UFC victims were making their Octagon debuts at the time ‘El Matador’ beat them.
“There are a lot more important things in this world to pay attention to – family, friends and that sort of stuff,” said a gracious Huerta. “Those guys are my number one fans, I go to them, and they keep me grounded. They put me in my place everyday, and I’ve been blessed with that. So whatever other people want to say, this is America and you can criticize whatever you want.”
Yet while Huerta admittedly hasn’t exactly taken out a Murderers Row in his first year in the UFC, fights in his pre-UFC career against solid fighters such as Naoyuki Kotani, Matt Wiman, Melvin Guillard, Mike Aina, and Joe Jordan show that he is no stranger to quality opposition, and fighters he has beaten in the Octagon like Leonard Garcia, Doug Evans, and Alberto Crane are no slouches either.
“I have fought a lot of opponents out of the UFC and in the UFC,” said Huerta. “It’s one of those things in sports where fans are fans and critics are critics. People criticize teams that have their ups and downs, but honestly, after this fight, I think it’s gonna shut a lot of people up. Nobody’s gonna criticize my opponents anymore, and I think it’s gonna show that whether you’re on my side or not, I’m gonna keep winning.”
Then again, no one picks on the guy at the bottom of the totem pile. If you’re good enough and popular enough to be experiencing some backlash, you must be doing something right. And Huerta fits the bill on all counts, from his fighting talent and charisma, to his story and ability to put on exciting fights. So getting to this level is something he always hoped would happen, but not something he expected after decisioning Jason Dent in his UFC debut in September of 2006. Yet that win was the impetus for him to put everything else in his life to the side in search of MMA glory.
“After my debut, I got totally devoted into MMA,” he said. “I do my homework, I study, I watch a lot of fights, and I train a lot. I eat healthy, I pay attention to my body, I don’t drink, and I completely devote myself to this sport. I’m focused and I want to become the world champion, but not only that. As soon as I get that belt, I’m telling you, I will retire with it.”
And though being the subject of articles from here to Mexico, being on the cover of SI, and having girls screaming for you is nice in a Beatlesque sort of way, it does come with a price.
“I don’t have much of a social life,”
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said Huerta. “I don’t have a girlfriend and I don’t think there would be one who would tolerate me being gone all the time. After this fight, I’m gonna sit down and maybe slow things down with fighting and doing PR. I put school aside because of what I’ve been doing with the sport. I would have graduated last May with a business management degree, and I put it aside because of this sport and because I love doing what I’m doing.”
Huerta is currently three classes away from his degree, but if he can beat the tireless dervish that is Guida and move to 6-0 in the UFC, come 2008 he may be looking at a title shot and not homework.
“When I beat Clay, I would definitely like a title shot,” he said. “I would be 5-0 this year and 6-0 total in the UFC, and it would be nice to be able to get that chance to become the world champion for the UFC in the lightweight division. But I don’t know what’s gonna happen next year. I’m really just looking forward to this fight, and it’s my number one concern. After this fight I’ll start thinking about what happens afterwards.”
Not that he’s going to sit around in January, reflecting on the most important 12 months of his 24 years on the planet, but if you do ask him about his time in the UFC, he struggles to find the right words to encapsulate 2007.
“It’s been very surreal and something I never knew would happen,” he admits. “It’s been crazy, but I’ve been blessed and I thank God for all the opportunities he’s given to me and for the people he’s put around me and the people I’ve encountered. I have the opportunity to do what I love to do, which is compete, perform, and fight. This year has been a crazy year, an amazing year, and more than anything, I’m going out with a bang.”
Oh yeah, and despite the critics and the lack of a social life, ‘El Matador’ has no regrets.
“It’s all been worth it, and it’s all a blessing,” he said. “I wouldn’t change anything at all.”
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"I’m ready. It doesn’t matter with who or where. On foot or on horseback. With maces or poleaxes. To fight. To first blood or to death. It doesn’t matter, I’m ready to fight. "
-Aleksander Emelianenko
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