Heath Herring Will Be Brock Lesnar's Opponent at UFC 87

It's time to end the speculation. According to MMAWeekly.com, Heath Herring has agreed to step in and square off against Brock "The Next Big Thing" Lesnar at UFC 87. This event will be taking place on August 9th, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event will be headlined by Georges St. Pierre vs Jon Fitch.

Brock Lesnar was originally supposed to square off against Mark Coleman at UFC 87. However, Mark Coleman was forced to pull himself off of the card due to a knee injury, leaving the UFC scrambling for a new opponent for Lesnar.

It wasn't as easy as simply slotting any available heavyweight into the fight. The UFC are being very careful about who will fight Lesnar at UFC 87, as they don't want Lesnar to lose two fights in a row. He lost his first fight to Frank Mir after Mir caught the raw and inexperienced Lesnar in a foot submission hold. This was fine for the UFC, as they wanted Lesnar to face some adversity in his first UFC match, and then slowly build himself up over his next number of fights. The UFC has a lot of money invested into Lesnar, and they don't want him to lose two straight matches, which would ultimately kill a lot of his buzz.

The UFC didn't want another submission specialist for Lesnar to fight at UFC 87, and Heath Herring definitely isn't that. Herring relies on his punching and wrestling ability, both of which Lesnar should have a substantial edge in. Even though Herring has submitted 16 people during this lengthy career, he has not forced anyone to tap out since 2003. Lesnar was a former NCAA wrestling champion, and his fight against Mir, while very short, showed that he could easily: a) take down his opponent and b) pound his opponent into a pulp. Many felt that Lesnar was dominating his match against Mir before getting caught in the submission hold that he ultimately tapped out to.

Herring certainly isn't a pushover though. He currently has a record of 28-13-1, and has fought against some of the top heavyweights in the world (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Filipovic, Fedor Emelianenko). Most of his biggest matches have resulted in losses (he has lost to Nogueira three times in his career, as well as losing to Emelianenko and Filipovic), but recently he rebounded with a big victory over Cheick Kongo at UFC 82 - Pride of a Champion.

Herring is a smart choice for Lesnar's next opponent. Herring is not the type of fighter that will surprise Lesnar and catch him in an unexpected leg or arm submission - he'll be looking to drop Lesnar, which is exactly the type of fight that Lesnar wants right now. Lesnar can overpower and out-wrestle Herring, which should result in a win for Lesnar.

Like it or not, the UFC has plans for Lesnar to be one of their biggest stars. Look for the UFC to continue putting Lesnar into favorable stylistic match-ups until he builds up his skills and confidence.