Alistair Overeem

Is this guy legit as an elite heavy or is he simply just knocking over poor fighter thus looking destructive.

I'm a big fan of the reem but considering his record at LHW is not all that impressive has he simply yet to be tested as a heavyweight. Hopefully his fight with Werdum will answer this.

Do you think now Strikefore is owned by zuffa we will finally see the Reem in the UFC or will he simply wait for his current Strikeforce contract to expire and leave?

I think he's legit and a Top 5 HW for sure.

He's a completely different beast at HW a bit like how Wlad Klit has changed in boxing.

I think he has a good chance of not just beating all the top guys in the UFC but could even walk through them but like you say there is an uncertainty about him due to his opponents faced at HW.

Maybe not a good example but Brett Rogers gave Fedor everything he could handle and The Reem blitzed him!

Agreed the Werdum fight will be the real test for Overeem at HW and if he wins the Strikeforce tournament it is inevitable he'll fight he UFC champ or top contenders.

If he waited for his contract to expire he'll be ridiculed as a ducker and although i'm a huge fan i think would be warranted. But i don't think he will, he's 31 and not getting younger so can't spend his few remaining peak years not fighting the best to secure a legacy.

Overeem is an absolute beast - i really hope they match him up with a top 5 UFC HW if/when he wins this Grand Prix - can't see Werdum causing any problems unless Reem gets sloppy a la Fedor.

Don't forget he is the K-1 Grand Prix champ too!

Reem is legit. He absolutely destroyed Rogers who man handled Fedor quite easily.

Dont know if any of yers have seen the fight with ex UFC Heavy Todd Duffee but check it out on youtube. Its over in a flash.

I can only see someone like Wedrum beating him if Reem gets sloppy but he's the best stand up Heavy in mma IMO.

Yeah I've seen the Duffee fight. I'm just wondering how he will cope if someone puts him on his back. Or if anyone can take him into the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

I agree though that he has the best stand up in HW MMA - Have you seen when he did a flying knee and jumped so high his waist was almost as high as the cage.

The guy is an animal. He would do well in the UFC. I think his skills are well rounded compared to a lot of UFC heavyweights. Problem is so many people hate Dana would he want to join the UFC. I guess the money would be enough though. If he did join definitely a potential world champion

The_Phenom wrote:Yeah I've seen the Duffee fight. I'm just wondering how he will cope if someone puts him on his back. Or if anyone can take him into the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

I agree though that he has the best stand up in HW MMA - Have you seen when he did a flying knee and jumped so high his waist was almost as high as the cage.

I was tinking could there be some underlying stamina issues but we will have to wait and see. The only people in MMA that could take him down is probs Brock and Carwin and I cant see them doing much while they are there.

Only an experience Heavy with good stand up and excellent BBJ could beat him.

Never thought I would be saying that a few years ago after seeing him being iced by Liddel but he is a completly different animal now.

Agreed the Werdum fight will be the real test for Overeem at HW and if he wins the Strikeforce tournament it is inevitable he'll fight he UFC champ or top contenders.

If he waited for his contract to expire he'll be ridiculed as a ducker and although i'm a huge fan i think would be warranted. But i don't think he will, he's 31 and not getting younger so can't spend his few remaining peak years not fighting the best to secure a legacy.

I don't totaly agree with this but I kind of see where you are coming from. There are always gonna be people who accuse fighters of ducking but the difference here is while he is under the strikeforce contract he can still compete in K1 where as under a UFC contract he wouldn't be allowed & although I dont know if he actually wants to continue in K1 I would think he'd want to at least defend his title again & equal or surpass the many other dutch K1 champs, a lot of those guys he knows or has trained alongside for many years. Also the money for winning the K1 GP + all the japanese endorsements & merchandising could well be more than what he will get from the UFC.

spoilers below


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Well Overeem won a unanimous decision against Werdum, although I thought it would possibly have been a split decision. Have to say I wasn't impressed by Werdum - his standing game was alright and he managed to connect with a few strikes and knees but he wanted to take the fight to the ground and yet when he got there didn't do anything! He constantly teased Overeem at engaging him on the ground but once Overeem was down he really didn't do anything. He was never once in a position to put on a kimora lock, there was one opportunity to get an arm bar or a triangle choke on but Overeem very comfortably slipped out of it and right at the end, in the dying seconds, he got a leg lock on him but the buzzer went for the end of the round.

Now imo if you're a BJJ black belt you should be doing more on the ground to earn the submission than Werdum did. I know MMA is no gi, which makes it more difficult but unless it was because he was rocked by one of Overeem's strikes there's really no excuse. It looked a couple of times in the fight that stamina was an issue - Werdum was very slow to get back to his feet when the ref stopped the action and he really wasn't explosive on the ground. Overeem looked in top condition and think he just had more in the tank. Now I can imagine when Overeem hits you it hurts and I can understand if Werdum was reeling from some of his shots but Overeem never connected with anything powerful enough to KO him - this wasn't the clinic that JDS put on in his fight against Carwin. So I'm not sure why neither man was able to really excell in his chosen area?!

I havent seen the fight yet but I cant see it being a classic. I thought Reem would be to strong for Werdum.

The fight was a disappointment, but that so often happens when a striker goes up against a grappler, they can sometimes cancel each other out and we end up with a spectacle inside the cage.

I would like to have seen Werdum (grappler) vs Josh Barnett (grappler) and Overeem (striker) vs say Sergei Kharitonov (striker) then that way I think the two main fights of this card would have gone down a lot better, just stylistically alone but I guess it’s not the fighters fault who they get matched up with...

gibbo104 wrote:The fight was a disappointment, but that so often happens when a striker goes up against a grappler, they can sometimes cancel each other out and we end up with a spectacle inside the cage.

I would like to have seen Werdum (grappler) vs Josh Barnett (grappler) and Overeem (striker) vs say Sergei Kharitonov (striker) then that way I think the two main fights of this card would have gone down a lot better, just stylistically alone but I guess it’s not the fighters fault who they get matched up with...

sometimes the classic grappler v striker are the most intriguing fights. The problem with this one was that Werdum didn't do enough to take Overeem out of his comfort zone and into the ground game where Werdum obviously felt more confident. Overeem easily stuffed Werdum's takedown attempts that were poorly telegraphed and weren't set up very well. Then you had Werdum coaxing Overeem while on the floor which turned the fans against him as it looked as if Werdum wasn't taking the fight seriously. Similarly Overeem was never really aggressive, he seemed happy to counter punch all evening and didn't really dominate the stand up like many thought he would. Personally I think Overeem needed to be more proactive in trying to get the KO. Yes this fight was a mismatch in many ways but I think neither man really tried hard enough to get the decisive win.

Talkingpoint - don’t get me wrong a mixed skill set match can be amazing to watch but I do feel that when you get two strikers together or two people that will go for an all out war that is when the most consistently entertaining (from the point of view of the fans) matches come from.
I personally know that I prefer it when two guys stay standing (ie both strikers) in the pocket and just go at it hammer and nails, and if the match does go to the ground then 2 BJJ experts each going for subs will be more fun to watch then one wrestler laying and praying on top position against a striker that doesn’t know how to fight off his back.
Just a preference of course but I do concede that this is only tends in my opinion to lead to better matches rather than it being the rule.