Photo Credit goes to Esther Lin at AllElbows.com
Congrats to Alistair Overeem for winning the 2010 WGP and becoming the first two combat sport champion. Will this victory mean that Alistair will focus more on MMA? Will he fight higher caliber fighters or will we see the same questionable match ups? Now that the dust has settled from the great rankings debate, and K-1 is done, let's deliberate as to why Overeem should be in the UFC. Could this all be said regarding Strikeforce? Absolutely, but Coker had his chance and he didn't utilize it to the fullest.
My thoughts start with that body, of course they do, he is every woman's fantasy. The simple truth of it that his bodybuilder physique is valuable. Low body fat means endorsements, promos etc. like it or not body matters. Consider that Todd Duffee shot the cover of Muscle and Fitness after his first UFC fight and was sponsored by Muscletech before that. "Demolition Man" might as well be his superhero name because the man looks like a full size action figure. Not to mention since going to heavyweight full time he has been 8-0. This size increase has lead to speculation that he uses steroids. Most of this fueled by the fact that his size increase coincided with time spent fighting outside the US. Skeptics want to see him fight in the US and be tested regularly. We all wanna know if it's really horse meat he's ingesting.
Overeem would definitely add excitement to the heavyweight division. Seriously who don't you want to see Alistair fight in the UFC? Alistair has a convincing submission game, in fact 19 of his wins have come via submission. It's his kickboxing however, that gets my heart racing. Overeem's 2008 fight against Badr Hari got every ones attention when he KO'd Hari with a brutal left hook. This fight and his war with Remy Bonjasky won fans hearts and got him into the K-1 World Grand Prix in 2009. Although Peter Aerts was beyond his prime at this point, it was a great fight, with Alistair tossing Peter aside like a rag doll numerous times and a huge win for Overeem. The 2010 K-1 Grand Prix we saw him KO Dzevad Poturak with a savage uberknee. Then Overeem abused Ben Edwards, knocking him down twice with huge overhand rights. WGP Finals we saw Alistair display some patience in his striking defeating Spong by unanimous decision. He destroyed teammate Gokhan Saki's arm with a left kick resulting in a first round TKO. Then he faced Peter Aerts for the second time. The crowd was behind Peter as the unlikely hero, but as Shivello said "you can not deny the awesomeness of Alistair Overeem" Absolute seduction, makes my heart swoon.
In case that isn't enough reason for you, what about his amazing self promotion? His vlog is the best there is. The content, editing and music are all phenomenal. Plus it gives us a mellow, funny and well spoken personality to pair with his enormous size frame. They just make me appreciate Alistair more and more.
Remember when Overeem said he would sign with the UFC right away if the conditions were right? Dana, please make these conditions happen. Who's with me?
Hell to the yeah, we'd all love to see Ubereem in the UFC, but how realistic is that?
ReplyDelete1 - "If the conditions were right"? Meaning what, exactly? He still wants to fight K-1, and he SHOULD. If he took that title then ran away, like he did with Strikeforce, I think there'd be some Yakuza guys looking for him. Dana would never let anything like that happen.
2 - Why would Ubereem possibly want to do that? Look at the Fedor model - if you fight legitimate fighters, you have a legitimate chance of losing. Could Ubereem beat Brock? Sure. Cain? Sure. He COULD beat anyone the UFC has. But he COULD get manhandled on the ground by a dude who's just as big and strong as he is. On the feet, there's no match in the division in the world, I don't think. But if Cain or Brock took him down.... different game.
So my hat is off to you, Mr Ubereem. As much as I would be the first guy to order THAT pay-per-view, I say damn the Man! Stay in Japan where you earn metric assloads of money and women fall to the ground in spontaneous orgasm as you walk by. You have no reason whatsoever to sign any agreement with the UFC OR to honor your agreements with Strikeforce. Life is short, and Japan is huge.