10 most notorious street fights in MMA

#5 Roger Huerta turns a football player into a soggy pigskin

Roger Huerta says that being the first MMA fighter to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated isn’t “monumental”. But, in conjunction with his fairytale success story, six straight UFC wins and the ensuing movie roles, even he’d agree that it gave him a little tailwind.

Having survived a childhood harrowingly reminiscent of Dukie from The Wire, Huerta could have been called a poster boy for the sport, back then. But Hollywood interrupted his quest for a UFC title and Huerta sought gold in nascent Bellator Fighting Championships upon his return to the sport.

Just before his fight with Eddie Alvarez, Huerta shot into the spotlight for a very unexpected reason. In August 2010, a video was circulated showing Huerta beating up a large African-American man purported to be former Texas Longhorn and Atlanta Falcon Rashad Bobino. Both were among the crowd outside a bar in Texas when the man lunged at a woman from behind and flattened her with a punch.

Huerta immediately confronted him, took off his shirt and called him out. The man fled, but Huerta chased and beat his face into a bloody mop. The media was full of mixed reactions, with some calling him a hero but others condemning his “vigilantism”. Honest opinion? Bravo, Roger.