Ex-UFC star caught on tape in streetfight
Mixed martial artist and former Ultimate Fighting Championships star Roger Huerta may be facing some legal complications after he was caught on video engaging in a street fight at night in Houston, Texas on Wednesday. The video was leaked to the prominent celebrity website TMZ and quickly made the rounds on the internet.
Huerta was acting in defence of a woman who was assailed by a man. The video, which appeared to have been taken by a cell phone, shows a large African-American man running up to a woman and punching her in the back of the head. Huerta then demanded to know what had happened and finally got into an altercation with the man. The video then focussed elsewhere for a few seconds. It then focussed on Huerta again, who was shirtless and had apparently knocked the man to the ground and was kicking and stomping him in the head before being pulled away. TMZ reported that police later arrived at the scene but did not make any arrests.
A legal gray area
It is unclear exactly how this situation will ultimately play out. On the one hand Huerta can legitimately claim to have been acting in defence of another person, given that the woman had been hit very hard by a much larger man. There were plenty of witnesses to this, and would likely be the reason he was not arrested.
On the other hand, Huerta is a professional MMA fighter. Despite the fact that as a lightweight he was probably outweighed by around 50lb, his training ensures that even unarmed, Huerta has the potential to seriously injure or kill untrained opponents. Additionally, Huerta was seen kicking the man in the head after he’d already been knocked down. It is unclear how the surfacing of this video will affect legal matters, or whether this video was originally available to police.
An MMA star
Huerta was once considered one of the best lightweights in the world, going 6-0 in the UFC before losing to Kenny Florian via a rear naked choke at UFC 87. Known for his good looks and for being one of the few elite fighters from a Latino background, he took a break from fighting to pursue an acting career, before finally returning to the UFC for one last fight, which he lost by split decision to top wrestler Gray Maynard.
He then joined Bellator’s lightweight tournament, where he advanced to the semi-finals before being suffering a huge upset to 10-1 underdog and eventual tournament winner Pat Curran.
Despite the recent loss Huerta remains one of the most marketable stars in the MMA world. It remains to be seen as to how this event might affect his popularity, but most fans on MMA websites seemed to support his actions as having been an appropriate reaction to an assault against a woman.
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