Alistair Overeem – Strikeforce in Dallas
By Sean Farrell
Time to do what ALL Texans do and that’s talk about something going on in the wonderful Lone Star State. Saturday June 18th marks one of the biggest days in MMA history and Texas fight history with the continuation of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. This will mark the first ever Major MMA Tournament to be held in the state of Texas as well as one of the biggest nights in fight history. The card will feature Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers, Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum-II, Muhammed Lawal vs. Ovince St. Preux, Gesias Cavalcante vs. Justin Wilcox, Valentijn Overeem vs. Chad Griggs, Daniel Cormier vs. Jeff Monson, KJ Noons vs. Jorge Masvidal.
This card will not have a single boring fight on it unlike partner in crime the UFC has been putting on, expect to see some of the best MMA on a verybig stage because that is just how do things down here. When I got picked up to cover MMA for RSR it was a dream come true for me. I am doing what I love to do, and now covering pro wrestling, I am doing EVERYTHING I love to do. But back on subject, I sent Geno a blog I had written about Alistair Overeem and the rest is history. I figured I would share this with everyone because they still seem to have this vision of Alistair Overeem being a chump which baffles me. So enjoy this piece on the “Demolition Man” and don’t forget to tune in to see “the best heavyweight on Earth” face off against a man in Werdum who has beaten Overeem before live on Showtime.
Throughout the years there has been many greats, we’ve seen Ali, Tyson, Robinson , Hearns, Hopkins and now Liddell, Ortiz, Jackson, Lesnar, and dos Santos. But there is one man nobody seems to want to give his credit, a fighter so fierce he comes off as George Foreman with a side of Peter Aerts(If you don’t know who Peter Aerts is you’ve never seen a fight)…His name is Alistair Overeem.
Below is my piece on Overeem right after he won the K-1 Grand Prix:
Alistair Overeem has accomplished yet another amazing feat in his which looks like a legendary career.Overeem, who is currently Strikeforce’s current heavyweight champion, made an appearance at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final and won another heavyweight championship by defeating Tyrone Sprong, Gokhan Saki, and K-1 Legend and 3 time Grand Prix winner Peter Aerts. Alistair Overeem has a fight record of 10-4 as a kickboxer and a 33-11-1 record in mixed martial arts,Overeem has a collective record of 43-15-1 and when you look at the losses many of which came when Overeem was extremely young and inexperienced in his fight career and were against many future hall of famers.
His notable losses were to; Sergei Kharitonov (Last man to defeat Overeem back in 2007), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (2), Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (2), Fabricio Werdum (Only man to cleanly beat Fedor Emelianenko during Fedors 28-0-1 fight streak), and “The Iceman” Chuck Liddell. This is meant to prove any and everybody wrong who wants to say Overeem is an overrated heavyweight. An overrated heavyweight fighter for example is someone like Brock Lesnar, Lesnar although he has an incredible collegiate wrestling background is nothing more than that… a wrestler.
Whenever the outcome isn’t pre-determined Lesnar won’t reign with any sort of championship for too long against top guys, he will drop it much like he did to Cain Velasquez and almost did to Shane Carwin. When you are almost KO’d and then KO’d after Zuffa and the UFC pumped a whole month of Lesnar (BROCKtober) down our throat to purchase a Pay-Per-View in which the “Golden Child” of the heavyweight division gets banged up like he didn’t even belong in a cage where striking was legal how can you not call Lesnar overrated before Overeem? Overeem is the subject to many insults and jokes such as “the Haley’s comet of MMA” and also “the man who doesn’t eat horse meat but horse steroids” and the line is going to be drawn right here. How can somebody who yes only defended the Strikeforce title once in 3 years be overrated when he is one of the busiest fighters on this Earth?
How does that sentence even make sense? Here is how. Overeem went into 2008 coming off a loss to Kharitonov, since that loss Overeem has been in 19 fights and out of those 19 he has only dropped 2 both of which were in K-1. Now before we jump the gun and say well he’s lost two fights since last losing an mma bout step back and analyze where the best strikers in the world are? answer K-1. Why do K-1 fighters have what American’s consider bad records? must mean they are no good right? Wrong! Also an untrue statement and one that must irritate many a fighter and fan alike. K-1 is where the best strikers on this planet are and unlike the UFC and Strikeforce, K-1 pitts the best strikers against the best strikers ALL THE TIME sometimes 3 to 5 times a night. Another example of this is say the #2 K-1 Fighter in the world wins against #1 now that #2 is #1 he will face #2 in his first defense unlike the UFC where if you win a title you can basically pick and choose who you want to fight and duck certain people and never fight the best if you don’t want too.
Overeem has nothing to prove by fighting in Strikeforce at all times, its a waste of his time and he’s losing money. Why fight 3 MMA bouts a year for maybe 400,000 when you can win one GP and make the exact same amount in a single night and then turn around and try and face somebody two weeks later for the DREAM HW Championship and win that in 19 seconds by a man Dana White called “Herculean” in Todd Duffee? Overeem is anything but overrated and many fighters need to take a page from Overeem’s book and make themselves an icon as a fighter as he is currently doing. Overeem is not an icon of a product or brand like Zuffa’s fighters, he IS his own brand, but until others catch on we should enjoy the moment because no matter what is said or how its stated Alistair Overeem is the first fighter to hold the Strikeforce HW Championship and K-1 HW Championship and DREAM’s HW Championship. This is history in the making, and if Overeem can pull off this triple crown so to speak wouldn’t that mean the UFC HW Championship the only title he would be missing is what’s really overrated?
That piece was nothing but truth, how can a champion in 3 promotions be overrated when he has to vacate all 3 titles to fight for one under a single banner? If Overeem goes to the UFC and beats a dos Santos and or Cain Velasquez, who would be left for him to fight other than for pure amusement? Overeem should just be appreciated for what he is, a fighter, and not be treated like Sting not going to the WWE. The UFC knows this too why else would they buy the company he is the champion of? Not only for Nick Diaz that is for sure.