Ed Herman talks Next Fight, Training, and Cutting Weight

Team Quest fighter Ed “Short Fuse” Herman is an amazing athlete who is currently fighting in the UFC with an exceptional 15-4 MMA record. He is recently coming off exciting stoppage wins over Scott Smith at UFC 72 and most recently, Joe Doerkson at UFC 78. Faced with a tough year in 2006, Herman returned with a vengeance in 2007 to stop all three of his opponents before the final bell. Ed took the time out of his busy training schedule to talk with me to discuss his next fight in 2008, his training, and several other topics of interest. This is Part 1 of this exciting interview with the Team Quest fighter.

CC. Rumors around the internet (graciemag.com) are that you are fighting Demian Maia at UFC 83, are these rumors true?

EH. Yes that’s true.

CC. After your KO in your last fight, can we look for you to throw more of the leather in your future fight?

EH. Yea, you know. It would be nice to get another knockout. He is a submission grappling world champion so I figure I would be a lot smarter if I keep the fight on our feet.

CC. It never hurts to get that knockout of the night bonus either.

EH. I would rather get a submission of the night; I think it would be cool to get a submission over the world champion.

CC. How has your training for the fight been going?

EH. Great! Originally I was suppose to fight March 8th, they rescheduled to April 19th, which gives me even more time to get in even better shape, so that was fine by me.

CC. What type of cardio workouts do you do?

EH. I run, I do a lot of stairs, running hills, airdyne workouts, and things like that.

CC. Are your workouts anything like we seen on Sean Sherk’s UFC All Access?

EH. I do some stuff like that, I workout at a place called SportsLab. We work on things like plyometrics. I run a lot of steep stairs like they showed him doing in the All Access, I run hills. I don’t get on my hands and knees, but I do run hills.

CC. When you are training for a fight how much tape of your opponent do you watch?

EH. I watch a little bit yea, I have a boxing coach that watches tape on it, as well as Robert Follis, my Jui Jitsu coach Fabiano Scherner. They all take a look at it and tell me what they see.

CC. I am sure that helps out a lot, there are some fighters that train their style, and have the mentality if they are going to beat me then they are going to beat me.

EH. Well I am not going to change my style for them; I am still going to fight the same way. I will know what to look out for, what your opponent is going to do. If he is going to try to take me down, then I will take a look at his takedowns, what kind of shot he shoots, and stuff like that

CC. How does training differ when you are training for a fight, and not?

EH. It differs a lot you know, I try to stay in shape all the time, but when I have a fight coming up; usually 8-10 weeks out I am in the gym 2-3 times a day. If I am not in the gym then I am somewhere else working out. I usually just step up the cardio, and make sure I am in top shape.

CC. Can you tell me a little bit about your diet? I heard a rumor that you have a different diet than most, is that true?

EH. Um, everyone has a different diet I guess. I walk around at 210-212 so as the fight gets closer I get tighter and tighter with my diet. Yea, we refer to it as the Dolce diet. My strength and conditioning coach, who is kind of like my nutritionist Mike Dolce designs a diet. It is a lot of common sense. It is cutting out a lot of simple sugars and carbs. It is a real simple diet, it is very clean.

CC. Is it hard to stay on?

EH. You know, it gets rough; it gets tighter and tighter as the weeks go by. You know, you will be thinking about those Cheetos and things like that. Things that I don’t really crave that much, I don’t really eat fast food, but when you’re cutting weight and dieting, and drive by McDonalds, you want to stop.

CC. Do MMA organizations need to regulate weight cutting?

EH. I don’t think so, no, because if a guy cuts too much weight then it is his own fault. You have to be good at every aspect of the game, your diet, how you cut weight. You have to have it all down to a T, that is part of being a champion doing things right.

CC. If you are cutting wrong then you are going to gas in the 3rd.

EH. Right, people throw an outfit on, and cut 30lbs the day of weigh-ins aren’t doing it healthy and it is hard to do. Hopefully the people that do it stupid don’t ruin it for the rest of us that know what they are doing.

CC. Do you think that cutting weight is a big deal in Mixed Martial Arts

EH. I think it is a big part of the game, yea. As long as you do it right it is a good thing. I have it down to a science now. Making weight is easier now than it’s ever been, and I am bigger now, and I think it is just part of the game.

Prior to completing the interview Ed wanted to give a shout out to his sponsors Condom Depot, Warrior Wear, and all of the guys from Team Quest with recent fights which included StrikeForce at the Dome, all the IFL guys from Team Quest who fought on February 29th, and Jon Fitch’s latest challenger, Chris Wilson.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2!