Paul Herrera: No-Holds- Barred Era | MMA History Podcast

Wrestling

Year2026

Duration1h 59m

Watch Now

7.1

Join the MMA Detective Mike Davis and co-host Joey Venti for an exclusive deep dive with Paul “The Hitman” Herrera — Division I All-American wrestler (Nebraska, 142 lbs), Tito Ortiz’s high school wrestling coach, and core member of the legendary Tank Abbott crew in Huntington Beach. In this raw, no-holds-barred conversation, Herrera recounts the Wild West days of MMA: his Olympic Trials run, training with Mark Schultz at BYU, the infamous UFC 6 elevator incident with Pat Smith, dojo-storming Alan Gomez alongside Tank Abbott and Eddie Ruiz, cornering Tito Ortiz’s UFC 13 debut, his own UFC 8 fight against Gary Goodridge, and his bout with Kazushi Sakuraba in Japan. He also details promoting the underground Hitman Fight Series and his current coaching at Huntington Beach Ultimate Training Center. The MMA History Podcast is the only show 100% dedicated to preserving mixed martial arts history through first-hand interviews with the men who lived it. 0:00 MMA history podcast intro 0:32 Joey Venti’s guest introduction 0:51 interview start 0:54 plugs/ promotions 1:33 recruited to California for wrestling 4:02 early UFC matchmaking 5:17 Olympic training center for wrestling 7:18 taking 2nd place at the Olympic open 10:07 scarce info online for Paul Herrera 11:16 coaching Tito Ortiz in high school 13:38 meeting Tank Abbott for the first time 18:25 relationship with Kimo Leopoldo 20:29 Kimo Leopoldo’s reputation 22:02 interactions with Joe Son 22:40 Randy Ziegler 23:10 relationship with Tito Ortiz 25:13 Dojo storming Allan Góes gym 30:46 animosity towards Tank Abbott at UFC 6 34:08 Tank Abbott vs John Matua 34:49 impression on Dave Thomas 35:50 Tank Abbott vs Paul Varelans 36:46 Oleg Taktarov vs Anthony Macias fixed fight 38:45 Tank Abbott vs Oleg Taktarov 39:22 Pat Smith backstage incident 43:43 running into Pat Smith in elevator 48:00 accused of stealing from Bob Meyrowitz 49:17 putting on Hitman fight events 51:09 relationship with Mark Schultz 54:45 training with Mark Schultz 56:27 Rickson Gracie meeting with Mark Schul