The Juggernaut MMA News Report 12.22.11: Lesnar vs. Overeem Preview - Part I
Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 12.22.2011
News and thoughts on Shane Del Rosario and the rest of Strikeforce's heavyweights coming to the UFC, Spike TV's counter-programming plans, a look at next weekend's match between Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem and more!
The heavyweight division in MMA in recent years has seen some fights with big build-ups. Most of them can be traced to Brock Lesnar since turning to MMA after the halfway mark of the last decade. Whether it be either of the fights between Brock and Frank Mir or Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. Few take on a life of their own with one that immediately springs to mind was the UFC title fight between Brock and Randy Couture. Elsewhere in the division, we have seen Velasquez and Junior dos Santos or any of the fights involving Fedor Emelianenko. Unfortunately, none of Fedor's recent fights have had anything close to the amount of hype you would expect because of losses and the fact he has not fought in the UFC.
Next weekend is when, literally, one of the biggest heavyweight fights in modern MMA history takes place. With Fedor's losses the past two years and even Josh Barnett being hot and cold in MMA, this is the closest we will get in 2011 or beyond to a UFC vs. PRIDE style heavyweight fight. Certainly, Overeem had his greatest success as a heavyweight after the Pride promotion died, but whenever you can paint back to the romanticized days of Pride, why not?
Because this fight is so big, I want to take a larger look at it. So, this week (especially since no fights are happening over the weekend due to Christmas) I will take a look back at why this is such an anticipated fight. Next week, I'll preview the top of the card at UFC 141 and get down to the nuts and bolts including who I think has the best chance to win.
LESNAR VS. OVEREEM PREVIEW
PART I
When you talk about their respective roads to UFC 140, Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem could not be any more different. Brock is a farm boy from South Dakota and maintains his home in Minnesota. Alistair was born in England but moved to Holland as a child where he continues to live to this day.
Brock's MMA career began to take shape following his UFC debut when he was caught in a kneebar by Frank Mir. Six months later, he fought Heath Herring at UFC 87 and for the first time, showed a dominant game over a prolonged period. Plus, Herring was a well known veteran of the sport and even though he has yet to return to fighting since that 2008 fight, it was an impressive showing. Brock smashed him early in the fight and spent the majority of the rest of the two and a half rounds smothering the former Pride star en route to a decision win. Next, because Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira were on ice due to being coaches on The Ultimate Fighter, the next title shot went to Brock when he challenged Randy Couture.
This was a fight where Lesnar had an enormous size advantage over Couture, always known for being a small heavyweight. The most surprising factor in this fight was how Lesnar struggled to take Couture down, despite his power advantage. Still, that factor would be too much to overcome for the Natural. In the second round, Lesnar clipped him which led to the finish of the fight when he became UFC champion by TKO. The following summer in 2009, he avenged his loss to Frank Mir by completely battering him on the ground, ending the fight with another TKO.
Then came his significant health issues, first with mononucleosis and then diverticulitis. He missed about eight months of action due to the illnesses and when he returned, it was for a title fight with Shane Carwin. The fight turned into a scene nobody had seen before, Brock was the one being punched like he owed someone money. Carwin was so close to putting him away, but unfortunately for him was tiring in the process. Lesnar stayed active just enough to prevent the referee from stopping the fight. In the second round, Carwin was gassed and Lesnar took him down immediately and submitted him with an arm triangle choke.
Brock returned three months later, a timeframe he would later rail against, to defend the title against Cain Velasquez. In their UFC 121 fight, Lesnar's wrestling was rendered moot which meant he had to fight a striking battle. Velasquez rocked the champion and Lesnar had no answer for the heavy handed strikes, losing by referee stoppage inside the first round. Coming back in 2011, he participated on a season of The Ultimate Fighter alongside Junior dos Santos but before the fight could take place, the diverticulitis returned. Lesnar had surgery in late May to remove a hefty portion of his colon.
Fast forward to now, the end of the year, Lesnar and his trainers claim he is 100% healthy and has never looked better from a training point of view. From the few pictures making their way around the internet, he does appear to have put on a lot of muscle compared to how he looked when he returned from the illnesses in 2010. We won't be able to tell clearly however until next Thursday at the weigh-ins when Brock and Alistair are standing side by the side.
The Alistair Overeem we now know, heavyweight bad ass, can be traced to 2007 to his Strikeforce championship win. Sure, he had defeated Sergei Kharitinov and Vitor Belfort at heavyweight in 2006, but he was still fighting at light heavyweight, too. In 2006-07, he was knocked out by Lil Nog, Shogun Rua and Kharitonov in their rematch. Pride folded in early 2007 and Overeem continued to bounce around between America, Japan and the Netherlands.
After beating Paul Buentello to become Strikeforce champion in 2007, he did not return to the promotion until last year. He was a big member of the early Dream shows, beating Lee Tae-Hyun, Mark Hunt and James Thompson between 2008 and 09. He even fought Mirko Cro Cop, in between his UFC stints, but that fight ended in a no contest due to repeated knees to the groin by Overeem.
The problem with Overeem as many fans see it is that over this period, he never fought big competition and based on your own opinion of Paul Buentello, only defeated one significant fighter from 2007 through today. That one fighter would be Fabricio Werdum and even that win wasn't too much of a convincing one because most of their three round fight was spent with Werdum on his back and Alistair too cautious to engage.
Overeem has only been in one fight the past three years that has gone past the first round (the Werdum fight). But let's be serious. What can you say about a 19 second win over Todd Duffee? Or a 33 second win over James Thompson? Or a 36 second win over Lee Tae-Hyun? Or a 75 second knockout of Kazuyuki Fujita that ended up with Fujita suffering a concussion? Get the picture?
So why in the world is Overeem considered by some to be right up there behind Junior dos Santos in terms of the best heavyweights in the sport? K-1.
The K-1 World Grand Prix in 2010 is what turned Overeem from being a heavyweight who people looked at and said he's a good fighter to turning him into a lethal fighter. The K-1 World Grand Prix was an annual tournament which theoretically featured the best kick boxers in the world in a 16-man single elimination tournament. He knocked out Ben Edwards in the first round in October. On the second and final night of the tournament in December, he defeated Tyrone Spong, Gokhan Saki and 41-year old K-1 legend Peter Aerts to come K-1 World Grand Prix champion. Although he did not have to fight Badr Hari (personal issues, the law, etc.) or Semmy Schilt (lost to Aerts in the semi's), the fact is Overeem is the first and only full-time MMA fighter to win the tournament.
Sometimes you may hear UFC color commentator Joe Rogan talk about how a particular fighter has "K-1 level striking" which is usually bullshit, but in this case, Overeem does.
NEXT WEEK:
-Why this fight will not go past the first round!
-Why whomever may lose is not in terrible shape moving to 2012!
-How Lesnar/Overeem will go and who will win!
JUGGERNAUT NEWS BRIEFS
- Erik Koch has suffered an injury in training and will not fight at UFC 143 against Dustin Poirier. The UFC is currently looking for a replacement.
- TUF 14 bantamweight John Albert will return to the octagon on the February 15 Fuel card against Ivan Menjivar.
- 15-5 heavyweight Lavar Johnson will make his UFC debut on the January Fox card against Joey Beltran. Johnson has fought the past two years in Strikeforce and begins the transfer of heavyweights to the UFC as they plan on removing the division from Strikeforce over the next year.
- Another former Strikeforce heavyweight, Chad Griggs will make his UFC debut in 2012 against a yet to be named opponent. Griggs has defeated Bobby Lashley, Gian Villante and Valentijn Overeem in the Strikeforce cage.
- (Part III) Former Strikeforce heavyweight Shane Del Rosario has reportedly signed with the UFC, too. Del Rosario is undefeated at 11-0 and is in great health after falling victim to a drunk driver earlier this year.
- Spike TV announced their plans to counter-program UFC programming on FX in 2012. Beginning on Friday, March 2, Spike will air Ultimate Fighter marathons in weekly three-hour blocks. This will run directly against new seasons of Ultimate Fighter on FX which will air Fridays at 10 p.m. eastern beginning on the same date.
According to Dave Meltzer, Spike hopes that, by essentially annoying the UFC and Fox, they can get the UFC to purchase back their tape library rights and end the non-compete that prohibits Spike from airing non-UFC MMA programming for 2012. They cannot legally move Bellator to Spike until 2013 when the non-compete agreement ends.
- Alistair Overeem's urine test taken in England last week came back clean and he is set to participate in next week's UFC 141 main event against Brock Lesnar. Overeem will still have to take a drug test when he returns to America next week along with two random drug tests over the following six months as part of the conditional license the Nevada State Athletic Commission granted him to compete.
- Overeem has been training with three-time All American collegiate wrestler Jared Rosholt in preparation for Brock Lesnar. Rosholt has been undefeated with a 4-0 record since moving to MMA.
- The UFC has released bantamweight Cole Escovedo who has gone 0-3 this year in the UFC with losses to Renan Barao, Takeya Mizugaki and Alex Caceres.
- Bellator's season six featherweight tournament has four confirmed participants. Marlon Sandro (season five finalist), Daniel Straus, Ronnie Mann and Wagnney Fabiano are set to fight. Four more fighters will be announced in the following weeks.
