Portland, Oregon's own Ed "Short Fuse" Herman fights this Saturday, April 18th on the UFC 97: Redemption fight card in Montreal, Quebec. He takes on David "The Crow" Loiseau, in a bout at 185 pounds. NW Fightscene's  Steve "Spaniard" Valentine had a chance to speak with Ed before he set off to Canada... 

NW Fightscene: You got a fight coming up on Saturday, how do you feel?
Ed Herman: Good man. I feel great. I'm ready to go out there and whoop some ass.

NWFS: Your last fight was another Ed Herman bad decision. It seem sometimes when it comes to judges you're getting the bad end of the stick.

How do you deal with that mentally as a fighter?
Herman: You know, it sucks. But its kind of on me. I need to go in there and finish guys so its not left up to the judges. There's nothing you can do about it after the fact except to just train harder and look to finish guys. That's the plan for 
this fight. I'm in his hometown, so I'm not going to let it go to the judges.

NWFS: Now how does that work? I mean, in team sports, the hometown team usually has the upper hand and the traveling teams have a hard time getting wins on the road. Is it the same in fighting, hard to get a win on the road, especially as you're fighting David in his backyard?
Herman: I don't think so. I'm used to it. I can't remember the last time I got to fight in Portland. So I'm always on the road, you know what I'm saying. It is in his hometown, so he'll have the crowd behind him. But he's going to need more than 
that to stop me. 

NWFS: So what's your game plan?
Herman: I'll just do what I do. Go in there and push the pace, stay in his face. Take him down and pound him out on the ground. Make him want to go home.

Make him want to quit. 

NWFS: What Loiseau do you think you're going to face? He's kind of like a Vitor Belfort almost, sometimes he shows up hot and sometimes he's cold.

What are you expecting?
Herman: You know, I'm sure he's going to come in ready to go. This is his big shot back in the UFC. So I'm sure he's going to come in prepared and ready to fight. But he tends to break mentally a little bit, and I'm going to push the pace and stay in 
his face and hopefully, you know, send him down early. 

NWFS: Training a while back we got some pictures of you, teaching some of the kids classes at Team Quest. Are you still in doing that?
Herman: I'm not teaching the kids as of now. I'm teaching some other regular adult classes. I've been here and there for guys. But when I get back, I'm coming back on the coaching. I'm going to start an MMA Saturday program and I'm going to be heading that up. And I might be getting back involved with the kids program.

NWFS: Speaking of teaching and coaching, is there ever going to be a chance that you're going to go out and open up a new Team Quest or an Ed Herman Gym? 
Herman: Yeah, someday. I don't know if it'll be a Team Quest or what it'll be. I definitely would love to open my own gym someday. I just right now want to focus on my career. Coaching as much as I can to stay fresh on that. But yeah, someday

I would love to open my own gym and have my own crew of fighters and all that good stuff.

NWFS: Also want to congratulate you, you had twins in January [last year].

How do you make it work, being a UFC fighter, a father, and all that?
Herman: Its awesome, you know. It's really awesome. I get to spend a lot of time with them. I don't have to work a 9 to 5 so I feel like that gives me an opportunity to be here a lot with the kids. Right now, I'm training so much that I'm not around a lot but in between fights I have a lot more time to spend with the kids and stuff so that's great. 

NWFS: Kids MMA programs are opening up all over the place. There are some negative opinions out there... what do you think?
Herman: I think its great as long as its structured right, with good discipline in it. 

I mean you're not going to have kids in there taking each others heads off or anything. Our kids program's awesome. Its grown along. Our advanced kids are sparring. Its pretty cool to see 8 and 9 year old kids getting after it... In a controlled manner. 

NWFS: There's a rumored UFC card in Portland in August. Are you planning on maybe trying to get on it?
Herman: We've talked to them about getting on it. But I'm really focused on this fight for now. But after its over, I'm going to be all over Dana and Joe Silva about getting me on in August. 

NWFS: That would be awesome to see Short Fuse back in the Northwest.
Herman: That'd be great.

NWFS: Do you have any up and comers, speaking of Portland, at Team Quest that we should keep our eye out for in the next year or so?
Herman: Definitely. Tyson Jeffries is one of our young guns. I think he just turned 20. He just took a tough loss to a tough guy, Mario Miranda who trains with Chris Leben and Matt Hume. But he's a talented kid and is going to go a long ways in this sport. Along with Colt Toombs is another 19 year old kid we have. He's a one forty-five pounder. He's actually "Rowdy" Roddy Piper's son. Remember him from the old WWE days? He's a talented kid too and he's got a lot of potential.

Tyson Jeffries                    Colt Toombs

 We got a lot of guys. We got the Healy brothers with us. Nathan Coy, he's defiantly an up and comer. You're going to be seeing him make some noise here real soon. He's got wins over [UFC-bound] Ricky Story and [WEC fighter] Mike Pierce...

Aaron Stark is about to make a big splash... Dave Jansen is another of our guys who is undefeated right now. He's 8 or 9 and 0. 155 pounder. He's a stud. So look out for these guys man.

Pat Healy                                          Ryan Healy

                                           Nathan Coy                                                                     Aaron Stark

                            Dave Jansen

NWFS: On behalf of the magazine and all your fans, we appreciate it. Good luck in there. Hope you tear it up this weekend. Sponsors or anyone you'd like to thank? 
Herman: Everybody who's been helping me out. Eastside Wellness Chiropractic... Of course Team Quest and all those guys there... Next Level MMA.

My sponsors, Warrior Wear and Dethrone, and everyone backing me up. 

Get all the latest info about Ed "Short Fuse" Herman at his website:

www.ed-herman.com