MMA Pioneer Gary Goodridge shares backstory of his knockout win over Paul Herrera at UFC 8 (Exclusive)

Gary Goodridge recently shared the backstory of one of the most memorable knockouts of his career when he defeated Paul Herrera at UFC 8.

During an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Goodridge opened up about his UFC debut and provided the backstory of his fight with Herrera. He mentioned that his friends tried to get him to train harder, so they told him that both his opponent and teammates were racist.

He said:

"They [my friends] told me he [Paul Herrera] was racist...'He's a racist dude with Tank Abbott...they're from a racist team.' They just got in it my head for me to train harder, which I did. I trained harder and I don't care who I lose to, I'm not losing to that racist dude." [10:48 - 11:05]

'Big Daddy' then described his gameplan for the fight. He mentioned that he found an area that he was able to exploit, resulting in one of the most devastating knockouts in the promotion's history, saying:

"I trained harder, I mapped out something exactly what I wanted to do to him and that's exactly what happened. Boom, boom, boom, 8 seconds it was all done." [11:08 - 11:19]

Goodridge revealed that a few following the fight, he found out that the story his friends told him about Herrera being racist was made up.

Check out the full video:

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Who did Gary Goodridge lose to in the finals of the UFC 8 tournament?

Gary Goodrige's UFC career began with a bang as he knocked out Paul Herrera with a flurry of elbows in the crucifix position to advance to the semifinals of the UFC 8 tournament.

'Big Daddy' then fought Lion's Den standout Jerry Bohlander in the semifinals and continued his knockout streak. He defeated Bohlander via TKO at 5:31 of the fight, leading to a finals matchup with Don Frye, who was equally as impressive.

Frye submitted the Canadian at 2:14 to win the UFC 8 tournament. Their paths would cross twice more as they fought later that year at Ultimate Ultimate 1996, where 'The Predator' once again earned a submission win due to fatigue.

Goodridge avenged his losses at Pride Shockwave 2003 as he defeated him via first-round knockout following a head-kick.