to the talent of the fighters. Look at Scott Smith, he just beat Cung Le who is Mr. Superstar in Strikeforce and I whooped Scott's ass in the UFC. Dan [Henderson] just signed so that boosts them up there a little bit and gives them some possibilities, but the UFC is way more competitive right now. Strikeforce has a decent opportunity in front of them with Showtime and the live fights on CBS and that's great for the sport in general. Come to think of it, they do have some of the top ten fighters in the world over there, in fact, they got quite a few with Fedor and some of the other guys, and they're paying good too. It's good to see that fighters may have a second option if things don't go right. Look at the case with Smith, he's been hanging in there pretty tough and now he has a new opportunity.

The sport's evolving so much these days that you don't even know who some of these guys coming up are anymore. It's not like 3 or 4 years ago when you knew everybody in the UFC. The reality is that you're fighting for your job every time you go out there so it sucks to lose or get hurt with all those things hanging in the balance and you always kind of wonder what they'll hold against you when nut cutting time comes around.

FiveKnuckles.com: Looking back on that fight with Simpson now that you've had some time to reflect, were you expecting him to keep such a high pace during the entire fight?

Ed Herman: No, I expected that for sure. I knew he gets after it pretty quick and I knew he was going to come at me. I'm kind of a slow starter sometimes and I find myself trying to weather the storm a little bit. I knew he was going to be explosive; he was definitely explosive maybe more so than I expected. He actually counter punched me at first and did some things to surprise me. He definitely won that first round, I'll give him that, but I feel like I was just getting going when my knee gave out. Aaron's a tough dude and I'd love a rematch against him.

It's not only Aaron; there are about three other fights that I want back in the worst way. I'd love another shot at [Alan] Belcher, at Kendall [Grove]. Any of the guys I barely lost to which have been most of my losses.

FiveKnuckles.com: When two good fighters put on such a good show, you hate to see one of them lose. Your fight with Alan [Belcher] could have gone either way. I actually talked to Alan recently and the same thing happened to him with Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 100.

Ed Herman: (Laughs) Yeah, I remember that fight. It was an excellent fight, but when the decision came out, I was like: "How does it feel, brother?" I actually wish Alan the best. I want to see everybody that I fight do well just because we earn respect for each other in there. I thought he won that fight, but when he didn't it, I definitely knew how he was feeling, that's for sure.

FiveKnuckles.com: (Laughs) The perfect instance of "what goes around comes around." In moving on to another subject, most...