The Curse of Roger Huerta

First off, let me say that I don't know Roger Huerta that well.  We've only hung out 4 or 5 times.  I'm not trying to be like that crazy bitch stalker Michelle Lopez. Ironically I've spend more time with him than that one time Roger, I'm sure regretfully allowed Michelle Lopez to come to a group dinner with his friends and family after a fight, making her think it was a date.

Anyways, the reason why Roger Huerta is so interesting is first off him and Mike Swick, another UFC fighter were supposed to open a new MMA Gym Together in Phuket.  then Huerta teamed up with Phuket Top Team and started teaching classes there, and fought under the Phuket Top Team banner at ONE FC all while wearing Tiger Muay Thai shorts.  Roger Huerta is currently teaching MMA at Tiger Muay Thai.

The other reason Roger Huerta is so damn interesting is he grew up with the most fucked up child hood imaginable and somehow, despite all odds made it.  I'll let wikipedia explain further:


Early life of Roger Huerta

Huerta is of Mexican and Salvadorian 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".[3] Born to Lydia and Rogelio Huerta in Los Angeles, California, he spent the first 6 years of his life in Texas.[4] His father became heavily involved in drugs and alcohol and began an affair with another woman that led to a separation with Lydia.[5]

Huerta's mother became physically abusive, and when Huerta came to school with bruises covering his body, Child Protective Services intervened, placing him in a foster home for a short time.[1] In 1990, Lydia lost the custody battle for Huerta and fled the United States with Huerta, age 7, to her parent's home in El Salvador. Shortly upon arriving, Lydia abandoned Huerta leaving him in the care of his grandparents at the time of the El Salvadoran Civil War.[1] She returned a year later to only leave him on his father's doorstep in Texas. That was the last time he saw his mother.[1] 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 and left with his father's parents living in poverty.[1] They would often send him out into the streets selling picture frames to tourists to make money.[1] For a brief time, his father and stepmother came back into his life where they moved to the Rio Grande Valley 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.[1] He lived on the streets for many years and survived by joining a youth gang.[1] 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.[1]

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 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.[1] 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 support him in division wrestling. Ramirez, already a mother of seven, adopted Huerta in 2002 at the age of 19.[6]

Ashford coached Huerta and with the help of Ramirez, aided him in applying for a collegiate wrestling scholarship. Huerta attends Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota with one year remaining in a Business Management bachelors degree[7] and resided in St. Paul, Minnesota.[8]

Huerta worked for a time as a bouncer and construction worker.[9]

Roger Huerta also got famous though TMZ for kicking the shit out of Rashad Bobino, a former Texas Longhorns linebacker for hitting a girl.



Here's a video where Roger Huerta talks openly about his fucked up childhood.  




Here's the full video of his fight at One FC vs. Zorobabel Moreira.  It was a bit unfair for Roger Huerta as he went up a weight class to fight Zoro, a much bigger opponent.  Also ONE FC has close ties with Evolve MMA and is known to stack fights in their favor.  When ONE FC was still known as Martial Combat, I went to one of their fights in Singapore and saw that every single fight involving an Evolve MMA fighter was an almost guaranteed win.

I'm not saying Evolve isn't a great gym.  In fact, it's an amazing gym for pro fighters, the owners are millionaires that spared no expense in building up an amazing facility, and flying in some of the best trainers from around the world to live, train and teach there full time.  Imported Muay Thai gear from Thailand, and MMA Gear, wrestling mats, octagon from the U.S.   It's actually a brilliant idea and they successfully used Martial Combat and ONE FC wins to market their gym.  Would I pay close to $800US for the first month and $350~US per month afterwards to join, maybe if I was a rich Singaporean with high end job, which I'm sure most of it's members are, or least the child of one.   I highly doubt the non pro fighter classes are anything amazing though, since the average Singaporean is known to be quite fragile so I can't imagine the sparring to be very intense or the classes to be pushed very hard.





It's quite clear that the Evolve MMA Fight Team trains their ass off, and maybe it's their fight camp that really makes the difference.  I respect Zoro for not taking the fight directly to the ground and standing and trading with Huerta.  It was really shocking and disappointing to see Zoro soccer kick Roger Huerta in the head after the referee clearly yelled out "No Head Kick, No Head Kick."  But at the end of the day, even if Zoro didn't go through with the head kick, the ref would have stopped the fight to TKO.

Some people say that Roger Huerta is cursed.  He won his first 6 fights in the UFC, but paused his MMA career it to pursue acting.  He was in the movie Tekken (2010) and a direct to DVD movie called Circle of Pain, both of which didn't do very well.  He left the UFC because Dana White wasn't paying him what he deserved.  I remember him telling me about how unfair of a cut he could get from sponsors and what he was left with after paying his coaches.   I'm sure he regrets leaving the UFC sometimes as his fight record afterwards in Bellator and against War Machine didn't go very well.

But at the end of the day, Roger Huerta is one of the nicest, most genuine guys I've ever met.  He always fights his heart out and leaves it all in the cage.  I genuinely and sincerely hope that Roger Huerta makes his way back to the top of the MMA world,  is successful as a trainer, and is happy wherever his path may take him.  I am super happy to hear that he got married to a beautiful Russian girl named Mari.  He, more than most people, deserves to finally get a break in this world.   Best of luck brotha.

Yod (GSP's Trainer), Roger Huerta, and myself at the gym

Roger Huerta, Montana, and myself on the beach

Warm Regards,

Johnny @ MyFightCamp.com

P.S. No Michelle Lopez, you are a crazy stalker bitch and I will not interview for your stupid book. Stop writing it, no one wants to read about you stalking him.