Despite loss at K-1 World GP in Yokohama, Alistair Overeem continues to grow his stardom
Published by Staff on December 9th, 2009 in Current Events

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For someone known as an MMA fighter first and K-1 fighter second, Alistair Overeem dominated headlines coming in and out of K-1′s weekend World GP event at Yokohama Arena.

Before the tournament happened, Overeem was the focus of K-1′s promotional storyline. He was portrayed as the MMA outsider who was going to threaten the K-1 kick boxers and take the World GP title. Despite the fact that Overeem has long been a kick boxer, the storyline of an outsider coming into the event and trying to steal everyone’s thunder was classic, old-school fight booking that worked in 2009 and in Japan, where psychology always gets over.

“Yeah, I think if he wins the K-1, I think we should be embarrassed,” exclaimed a disgusted Remy Bonjasky, 2008 K-1 World GP tournament champion. “I mean all the K-1 fighters should be ashamed at themselves because he comes from the MMA and tried to make us look like a fool and it can’t happen, it must not happen, I think Badr or Teixeira must stop him or Karaev, they need to stop him because I hope that they will stop him because he will make us look like a fool, yeah.”

Badr Hari, who was disqualified in the finals against Bonjasky last year, played babyface against Overeem and said that he wanted to fight the ‘outsider,’ too.

“Yeah, of course you know. It would be great for me, I will meet him again and I can fix something that was not so good. I lost against him and I’m happy that I lost, it means I’m a little bit motivated for this tournament.”

The brewhaha involving Overeem has been slowly percolating since he has made a big-time commitment to MMA. He’s now a heavyweight champion for Strikeforce and he’s been also fighting in the DREAM ring. Overeem is winning fights and despite not having major marquee MMA fights under his belt, he continues to climb the list of rankings lists all over the Internet in terms of MMA’s division. Let’s be honest — heavyweight talent right now in MMA is rare and Overeem possesses a lot of dangerous skills. He’s got great kickboxing ability, so his striking is better than the average MMA guy. He’s got size and flexibility, which is a hard combination to beat. He has experience, which is something you cannot buy. Plus, he’s got heelish charisma and comes across as a superstar — which he truly is.

After he fought James Thompson on October 25th in Osaka, Overeem issued an open challenge to Fedor for April of 2010. The fight hasn’t been signed yet, but it all but seems like a done deal. Despite not being a fully established MMA stars, Overeem poses some significant threats to Fedor because of what a great athlete he is and how good his striking game is right now. He’s very sharp. If Brett Rogers gave Fedor trouble, then Alistair Overeem is going to give the Russian some real headaches in an MMA fight.

Going into the K-1 World GP event last weekend, Overeem was asked to address his critics who said that he had never fought three times before in one night and that he wouldn’t have the conditioning to last.

“I’ve been really focused on myself, my training, my preparation going into this fight. Uh, everything went perfect so I’m 100% and I’ll know what to do December 5th.”

Overeem looked at a second-round match against Badr Hari, a man he beat last year on New Year’s Eve at the Dynamite show. Hari, K-1′s bad boy, would suddenly be viewed as a babyface in the re-match. Hari was so prepared to face Overeem that he changed his diet and physique so the big man wouldn’t push him around.

“Badr, I know him as well, he’s also a die hard. Still, Badr, I see him, he’s gained some weight, I think it’s going to be a problem for him.

He’s going to get tired. I think so, yes. He’s going to be, he wanted to be a little bit like me, it’s not going to work because he’s not that big and I think he’s going to get tired.”

Asked if the main reason Hari gained the weight was due in part of his loss to the Dutch ace and Overeem replied, “Without talking too much smack, I think he did.”

K-1 took promotional advantage of some comments that Overeem made in which he said that fighting K-1 bouts was easier than fighting MMA bouts.

“MMA is harder than K-1, well that’s really a comparison if any K-1 fighters step with me in the cage or the ring under MMA rules, nobody would last more than three minutes so if you make that comparison, I’m 100% true. If I would win the K-1 everybody would be embarrassed? I don’t know, I’ve been kickboxing for a long time for my stand-up skills in MMA. I’ve been training hard, I’ve been in 14 years now so I’m not just an MMA fighter, I’m also a kickboxing fighter. I have done my first fights were kickboxing fights, so I don’t know why what’s the fuss about.”

That quote right there tells you the awesomeness of Overeem’s confidence in himself and how he manages to irritate other fighters in the process. You can’t force that kind of persona onto someone with the talent that he has — it’s who he is. Which is why he is such a potentially marketable heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts. He can fight K-1 fights when he needs to make money and win and he can also pose a threat to all the top challengers in MMA. For manager Bas Boon, it’s like having your printing press to make money.

Overeem took care of business against Ewerton Teixeira in round one of the GP tournament, but met up with a bigger version of Badr Hari and ended up losing. The fans popped huge for the outsider losing.

“Well, I’m disappointed but I think my performance was OK and the first fight went excellent. The second fight, you can see this is the highest level here at K-1, one little mistake and yeah, you pay the price. I think the second down was not fair, um, I was not hit, I was more out of balance and for me there was no problem to continue to fight but the referee saw it differently and he canceled the fight, so um that was the end for me for the fight and the end of the tournament.”

Now the series between Hari and Overeem is evened up at one a piece.

“The fight, I think was also a little bit too short to see anything. I think last year was my day and this year was his day.”

Will the man portrayed as an outsider continue K-1 fighting? Of course. He’s a tremendous talent.

“Well, uh, why not? I mean um I actually enjoy the K-1 experience so I think I’ll be competing more K-1 fights so why not?”

Luckily for Golden Glory, Overeem came out of the tournament unscathed and while he didn’t mention the name of Fedor, he wants to fight him in MMA and win.

“I have no injuries and also um, first I’m going to go home and um yeah, talk with my manager and talk with my trainer and we’re going to see about that. Um, if we decide we want to compete, I would like to compete.”

How did Overeem like being viewed as a villain by the fans and fighters?

“Well, I’ve never said to anybody that K-1 was a easy sport and I think that’s been taken out of context, I’ve said that MMA is more hard and um having competed at the highest level of MMA and of K-1, I speak of experience. I can have that opinion and anybody who hasn’t cannot judge about that but I have so I can judge, I can say that.”

One judgment that is very clear is that despite losing to a great opponent over the weekend, Alistair Overeem continues to gain momentum and credibility as he makes his way up the rankings in Mixed Martial Arts as a top-level heavyweight. Overeem has his critics, but nobody can deny how much talent he truly possesses. When he fights Fedor in 2010, it will be a legitimate heavyweight fight between two legitimate fighters who are the best at what they do in the fight business.