Roger Huerta is not having a good time at the moment.
On Saturday he fought for ONE FC in Malaysia and was stopped in the second round by the rising talent Zorobabel Moreira, who soccer-kicked him into unconsciousness after first dropping him with a knee from clinch.
That put Huerta on a four-fight consecutive losing run and 1-5 in his last six, making his decision to leave the UFC several years ago seem like a pretty poor one in retrospect (although one wonders if he would have been able to maintain his tenure had he signed a new deal anyway).
Outside of the cage, Huerta is being troubled by a book that an *intense* fan is writing about him. The book – which appears to have a working title of ‘Roger Huerta: Crush’ – is the project of one Michelle Lopez. She likes Huerta a lot and she wants to put her feelings into print as well as present some kind of insights into the Mexican-American lightweight.
The only thing is, Huerta claims she hasn’t got a single insight to offer. He claims they have spent a total of around 30 minutes in proximity to each other and that this occurred as a result of her first attending a seminar of his, then attending a group dinner meeting but suddenly bailing out. Huerta seems genuinely baffled by the whole thing, but also very annoyed:
For her part, Lopez describes herself as a failed (or failing) copywriter who for the last five years had been providing writing for various holistic therapists, health coaches and nutritionists. According to her blog, recently “it’s all came crumbling down – mainly due to my struggle to convert sales, and due to my tendency to burn bridges. Both of those flaws, I am working on eliminating.”
Lopez has posted a long explanation of her thinking behind this project in a lengthy blog post which explains how she saw his infamous street-fight video, then “Googled Roger, became enamored over his looks – and then started reading his story. Like my obsession with the Columbine High School shootings, this one grabbed me hard… and it stayed.
“I’ve spent the last year reading everything I could about Roger… In July of [2010], an opportunity arose in which I was able to meet him in person. I flew to Pharr, TX, and took an MMA training seminar that Roger was hosting. Afterwards, I managed to hang out with him and a group of his friends, got to talk to him for a bit, and felt a strong connection that led me to believe he and I could be good friends.”
There is a lot in this vein. Lopez pawns her jewellery, solicits donations online for gasoline money and then undertakes a 20 hour driving trip to see Huerta fight War Machine. He then loses. This does nothing to diminish her respect for him. She attends a group dinner afterwards and talks to Huerta – at which point he says “something” which causes her to immediately lose all respect for him. She gets up and walks out.
What did Huerta say? Lopez isn’t revealing – until the book comes out. And so we won’t know what tremendous dinner-table faux pas Huerta committed until ‘Roger Huerta: Crush’ is on bookshelves in the indeterminate future. The world awaits.
Huerta and Lopez in happier times. Which lasted 30 minutes, according to Huerta.
