UFC's Roger Huerta and The Road Ahead

For most of us, there are only two guarantees in life: death and taxes.  

Roger Huerta's pre UFC 87 guarantee that he would never lose may have come across the wrong way, because as any mixed martial artist will tell you: there are no guarantees inside the cage. 

To me, his prediction wasn't so much a guarantee that he would never lose another fight, but more of a guarantee that, no matter what, he would never quit.

Quitting for Roger Huerta just isn't an option.  Not only is it not an option, it's not even in his vocabulary.  I'm sure most have seen his fight with Clay Quida as evidence, but if not, watch that fight and you'll see a completely different level of heart and determination.  

It's the life he's led up to this point that has made him who he is. A life that saw him beaten by his mother and stepmother, abandoned at age seven, and left to sleep on rooftops with no place to call home.  He's seen some of the worst that life can dish out.  There's nothing Roger can't overcome.  

His recent defeat at the hands of Kenny Florian at UFC 87 is the latest obstacle to cross Huerta's path.  It has no doubt set him back, but not quite as far as one may think.

Roger will look to begin his ascension up the lightweight ladder once again and here's a look at a number of talented lightweights that might be looking to block the road ahead for Roger Huerta.

Mac Danzig

Danzig won the Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs Team Serra series with a submission victory over welterweight Tommy Speer.  Danzig then submitted a very game Mark Bocek in the third round at UFC 83 in Montreal.

Danzig's next fight comes at Ultimate Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Nebraska where he'll face off against the man that Roger Huerta last defeated: Clay Guida.

Guida is always an exciting fighter to watch.  A win over Guida would give both Danzig and Huerta a recent victory of a common opponent and could set up a Mac Danzig-Roger Huerta matchup in the near future.

Frank Edgar

Edgar made a big splash in the UFC when he defeated Tyson Griffin by unanimous decision in his UFC debut.  He was very quickly making his way up the lightweight ladder with wins over Mark Bocek and Spencer Fisher. 

The wind was taken out of his sails at the hands of Gray Maynard at Ultimate Fight Night 13.  But Edgar made a huge comeback with a unanimous decision victory over former number one contender Hermes Franca at Ultimate Fight Night 14: Silva vs Irvin.

Edgar comes in with a good wrestling base and could pose some serious problems for Huerta as Huerta's takedown defense is average at best.  The win over a top quality opponent like Franca has shot Edgar right back in the lightweight mix.  

He has shown that he can hang with some of the best in the UFC's lightweight division. For me, a bout against Huerta would be the next logical step forward for Edgar.

Winner of Kurt Pellegrino vs. Thiago Tavares

Pellegrino is coming off a loss to Ultimate Fighter winner Nate Diaz at Ultimate Fight Night 13 and is looking to get back on track in his next fight at UFC 88 against Thiago Tavares. 

He has a 3-2 record in the UFC and holds a win over Alberto Crane, a man that Huerta has also beaten.  Should "Batman" get past Tavares, this could be an interesting matchup for Huerta. 

The same could be said for Tavares.  Whoever emerges the victor in this match could provide a valid argument for a shot at Huerta.

Huerta has only had one fight so far in 2008 and I would expect to see him fight one more time at the end of the year, either at UFC 91 in November or on the UFC's New Year's Eve show. 

This leads me to eliminate a few fighters that could make for a great matchup, but who are tied down to fights that they already have coming up.  

Rich Clementi is one of them.  He has a rumoured date with Gray Maynard later this year and that puts somewhat of a damper on a proposed bout with Huerta at the end of the year.  I'd still like to see these two get after it eventually, but if Huerta is to fight again this year, I don't see it happening just yet.

Guaranteed is the fact that, for Roger Huerta, the road ahead contains some very interesting stops on the way back to the top of the lightweight division.