Roger Huerta - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Roger Huerta is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Mixed martial arts

Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...

. He initially gained exposure by competing in the lightweight

Lightweight (MMA)

The lightweight division in mixed martial arts can refer to a number of different weight classes:* The UFC & Strikeforce lightweight division with upper limit at 155 lb...

division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world that hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport...

and later Bellator Fighting Championships

Bellator Fighting Championships

Bellator Fighting Championships is a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United States. "Bellator", which is Latin for "Warrior", is organized into seasons with each event hosting the rounds of championship knockout tournaments for three-five weight divisions.-History:In its first season,...

Early life

Huerta is of Salvadorian and Mexican

Mexican people

Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

descent. He has had a long and difficult early childhood right up to his teen years, overcoming many challenges and has been described as having the "life that Hollywood producers make movies about". Born to Lydia and Rogelio Huerta in Los Angeles, California, he spent the first 6 years of his life in Texas. His father became heavily involved in drugs and alcohol and began an affair with another woman that led to a separation with Lydia.

Huerta's mother became physically abusive, and when Huerta came to school with bruises covering his body, Child Protective Services

Child Protective Services

Child Protective Services is the name of a governmental agency in many states of the United States that responds to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered practices, such as "Department of Children & Family Services"...

intervened, placing him in a foster home for a short time. In 1990, Lydia lost the custody battle for Huerta and fled the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

with Huerta, age 7, to her parent's home in El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

. Shortly upon arriving, Lydia abandoned Huerta leaving him in the care of his grandparents at the time of the El Salvadoran Civil War. She returned a year later to only leave him on his father's doorstep in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. That was the last time he saw his mother. Huerta openly talks about the mental and physical abuse he endured from his father and stepmother in that year. The next year he was relocated to Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

and left with his father's parents living in poverty. They would often send him out into the streets selling picture frames to tourists to make money. For a brief time, his father and stepmother came back into his life where they moved to the Rio Grande Valley

Rio Grande Valley

The Rio Grande Valley or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas...

and enrolled him half way through the year into 3rd grade. At 12 his father left home, and soon after Roger was kicked out by his stepmother. He lived on the streets for many years and survived by joining a youth gang. He often slept in alleys and on rooftops, but was encouraged by his friends to remain in school where he could eat a provided breakfast and lunch.

He occasionally stayed with friends and just before his freshman year, his life began to turn around for the better. Maria King, his friend's mother, obtained legal custody of him and the three moved to Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

where he attended Crockett High School. For one of the first times in his life he found himself in a stable environment and became quite popular in school and joined many of the school's sports teams including football and wrestling. It was there he met Jo Ramirez, his English teacher, where she learned about his troubled childhood in a conversation discussing his future ambitions. Furthermore, Bryan Ashford, the school's wrestling coach, took a special interest in Huerta and continued to supported him in division wrestling. Ramirez, already a mother of seven, adopted Huerta in 2002 at the age of 19.

Ashford coached Huerta and with the help of Ramirez, aided him in applying for a collegiate wrestling scholarship. Huerta attends Augsburg College

Augsburg College

Augsburg College is a selective liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Augsburg was named for the Augsburg Confession, the document of Lutheran belief. The school was founded in 1869 in Marshall, Wisconsin as Augsburg Seminary and moved...

in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

with one year remaining in a Business Management bachelors degree and resided in St. Paul, Minnesota

Minnesota

.

Huerta worked for a time as a bouncer and construction worker.

Early career

In Huerta's pre-UFC career, his first loss came as a result of a dislocated jaw early in the finals of the SuperBrawl 36 tournament against Ryan Schultz

Ryan Schultz

Ryan James Schultz is an American mixed martial artist. Before the closing of the International Fight League, he was the promotion's Lightweight Champion.-Biography:...

on June 18, 2004, his third match of the day.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Huerta was originally slated to make his UFC debut against Hermes Franca

Hermes Franca

Hermes França Barros is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competes as a lightweight.-Early career:França made his professional MMA debut in November 2001. He quickly earned an undefeated streak of 6-0, drawing the attention of the UFC.-First UFC run:...

at UFC 61
UFC 61
UFC 61: Bitter Rivals was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday, July 8, 2006. The event took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada and was broadcast live on pay-per-view in the United States.-Background:The main event was a...

, but was forced to withdraw from the fight as the result of an elbow injury. He won his first six fights in the UFC, the first at UFC 63
UFC 63
UFC 63: Hughes vs. Penn was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on September 23, 2006. The event took place at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California and was broadcast live on pay-per-view in the United States and Canada....

against Jason Dent

Jason Dent

Jason William Dent is an American mixed martial artist. The Lightweight competitor has held several regional championships, most recently he won the IFBL Welterweight Championship. He runs the GriffonRawl MMA Academy in Mentor, Ohio, and previously hosted an MMA oriented radio talk show on WWGK...

, which was declared "Fight of the Night".

His next fight was against UFC newcomer John Halverson at UFC 67
UFC 67
UFC 67: All or Nothing was a mixed martial arts event held by Ultimate Fighting Championship. The event was held Saturday, February 3, 2007 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada...

. The fight ended by TKO after 19 seconds of round one after Huerta landed a knee to the shoulder/head area of a grounded Halverson, knocking him down and finishing him with punches. The end of the bout was controversial as knees to the head of grounded opponents are illegal under UFC rules. It was later shown in a replay that Huerta's knee was actually to the shoulder rather than to the head.

Next he fought in a three round war with Leonard Garcia

Leonard Garcia

Leonard Garcia is an American mixed martial artist who currently competes in the featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He previously fought for the UFC in the lightweight division before moving down to the featherweight division in the World Extreme Cagefighting...

at UFC 69
UFC 69
UFC 69: Shootout was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday, April 7, 2007 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas...

. winning via unanimous decision. After the fight, in May 2007, Huerta became the first mixed martial artist to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

Magazine, for a story on the rising popularity of mixed martial arts

Mixed martial arts

.

Huerta won his next two fights against Doug Evans

Doug Evans (fighter)

Douglas Evans is an American mixed martial artist who resides in Anchorage, Alaska. He competes in the Featherweight division, and is best known for the first round of his fight against Thierry Quenneville, which was named Sherdog's 2009 Round of the Year.-Early career:Evans made his professional...

and Alberto Crane

Alberto Crane

Alberto Lewis Crane is an American mixed martial artist. He currently fights as a lightweight. He has fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and is a former King of the Cage and Ring Of Fire lightweight champion.-Biography:...

. He then faced Clay Guida

Clay Guida

Clayton Charles Guida is an American mixed martial artist and currently fighting in the UFC as a lightweight. Guida was the first Strikeforce Lightweight Champion and held the title until being defeated by Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce: Revenge...

in the 2007's The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs Team Serra Finale

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra Finale, also referred to as The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale, was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on December 8, 2007...

. Huerta was visibly frustrated at losing in the grappling exchanges from Guida's wrestling offensive, spending a large part of the bout on his back fending off "ground and pound" from his opponent. Late in the second round, Huerta was stunned by a punch to the face while trying to get to his feet, but managed to survive until the end of the round. Early in the third round, Huerta looked to engage Guida on his feet, connecting with a knee to the face while attempting a kick Guida. After a brief flurry, Huerta took his back and submitted Guida by rear naked choke

Rear naked choke

The Rear naked choke is a chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back. Depending on the context, the term may refer to one of two variations of the technique, either arm can be used to apply the choke in both cases...

very late in the fight for an impressive come-from-behind win.

Huerta then lost his next fight by unanimous decision (all judges scored the bout 30–27) at UFC 87
UFC 87
UFC 87: Seek and Destroy was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on August 9, 2008, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.-Background:...

against Kenny Florian

Kenny Florian

Kenneth Alan Florian is a Peruvian-American mixed martial artist who competes as a featherweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He has a background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai, and is known for his cerebral approach to the sport based on his meticulous game plans and...

.

On January 9, 2009, Huerta announced an indefinite hiatus from MMA to further pursue opportunities in acting.

In order to complete his UFC contract, Huerta returned on September 16, 2009, but lost to Gray Maynard

Gray Maynard

Bradley Gray Maynard is an American amateur wrestler and mixed martial artist, who competes as a lightweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He has recorded one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history, at 9 seconds against Joe Veres. He is the only fighter to hold a win over current...

at UFC Fight Night 19. After a back-and-forth fight, he would end up losing a split decision in his bout against Maynard, with the bout scored 28–29, 30–27, 30–27.

Bellator Fighting Championships

Despite having previously announced on his personal Twitter account that he was in talks with Strikeforce

Strikeforce

Strikeforce is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts and kickboxing organization based in San Jose, California. It is headed by CEO Scott Coker and owned by Zuffa, LLC...

, Huerta eventually signed with Bellator Fighting Championships

Bellator Fighting Championships

. He was one of eight men to compete in the second season lightweight tournament, with the winner receiving a title shot against Eddie Alvarez

Eddie Alvarez

Eddie Alvarez is an American mixed martial artist, and former Bellator Fighting Championships lightweight champion. Alvarez also competes for the Japanese DREAM promotion, and fought once for ProElite's EliteXC promotion...

.

His first fight in the tournament took place at Bellator 13. Huerta defeated opponent Chad Hinton

Chad Hinton

Chad Hinton is a American mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division.-Mixed martial arts career:A professional MMA competitor since 2007, Hinton fought in Ohio based promotions....

via submission (kneebar) at 0:56 of the third round.

His second fight in the tournament took place at Bellator 17. Huerta lost the semi-final to Pat Curran

Pat Curran

Pat Curran is a retired American football tight end. Curran played for the National Football League Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers between 1969 and 1978....

by a controversial unanimous decision (29-28 from all three judges). However, on August 12 it was announced that Huerta would be fighting Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez

Eddie Alvarez

, after Curran had to pull out of the fight due to a slap tear in his right shoulder. The Lightweight belt was not on the line when the two met on October 21, 2010 at Bellator 33 in Philadelphia. He lost the fight via doctor stoppage between the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

Training

Huerta trained for his UFC fight against Kenny Florian

Kenny Florian

with Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting. For his Bellator

Bellator Fighting Championships

debut, he spent time in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

and put together a training camp with MMA fighters such as Yves Edwards

Yves Edwards

|-| Win| align="center" | 41-17-1| Rafaello Oliveira| TKO | UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson| | align="center" | 2| align="center" | 2:44| Washington, D.C||-| Loss| align="center" | 40-17-1| Sam Stout| KO...

(UFC), Shad Lierley

Shad Lierley

Shad Lierley is an American mixed martial artist. He fought for the Seattle Tiger Sharks of the now defunct International Fight League.-Bio:...

(Bellator), Jared Hess

Jared Hess (fighter)

Jared Hess is an American mixed martial artist. He is most known for his stint fighting for Bellator Fighting Championships in their middleweight division. He was runner up in the middleweight tournament after losing to Hector Lombard.-Biography:Hess grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and attend...

(Bellator), Dave Menne

Dave Menne

David Jeremy Menne is an American mixed martial artist who has fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Rumble on the Rock. He was the first ever UFC Middleweight Champion and is known for his fight against Phil Baroni in which he got knocked out and tried to fall to the ground, only to...

, and Jeff Clark out of the Phil Cardella

Phil Cardella

Phil Ryan Cardella is an American mixed martial arts fighter. He currently fights as a lightweight in the World Extreme Cagefighting organization...

/ Relson Gracie

Relson Gracie

Relson "Campeão" Gracie is a retired professional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter and martial arts personality. He is a member of the legendary Gracie family.Relson currently lives in Hawaii where he still teaches Gracie Jiu-Jitsu at his academy in Honolulu. There are many Relson Gracie affiliated...

Academy in Austin, Texas.

Film

Huerta made his acting debut as Miguel Caballero Rojo in the live action motion picture Tekken. He also starred alongside Kimbo Slice

Kimbo Slice

Kevin Ferguson , better known as Kimbo Slice, is a Bahamian-American boxer, mixed martial artist and occasional actor...

, Frank Mir

Frank Mir

Francisco Santos Miranda is an American mixed martial artist, as well as a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Kenpō Karate, who competes in the heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and a former UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion...

, and Heath Herring

Heath Herring

Heath Herring is an inactive American Heavyweight professional mixed martial artist who attained popularity fighting for PRIDE FC in Japan and most recently fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship...

in Circle of Pain, a 2010 direct-to-video film.

Personal life

On August 10, 2010, Huerta engaged in a street fight outside a bar around 2 AM in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

as reported on TMZ.com

TMZ.com

TMZ.com is a celebrity news website that debuted on November 8, 2005. It was a collaboration between America Online and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. However, it is still affiliated with AOL News and has the AOL News logo affixed in...

. In the video, a man alleged to be Huerta is seen exchanging words with and defending himself against a man, Rashad Bobino, a former linebacker of the University of Texas Football Team, who had just violently assaulted a woman. Bobino did not press charges.

Mixed martial arts record

|-
|Loss
| 21–6–1(1)
|

Pharr, Texas

Pharr is a city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 70,400. Pharr is connected by bridge to the Mexican city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas...

Early life

Early career

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Bellator Fighting Championships

Training

Film

Personal life

Mixed martial arts record

External links