I am having a hard time coming up with a way to describe the fight that took place in Dallas on Saturday between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum.
The hype for the fight was understandable, as the two fighters both had a very memorable 2010.
Overeem added the K-1 Grand Prix title and the Dream interim heavyweight title to his Strikeforce heavyweight title. For his part, Werdum ended the 28-fight winning streak of Fedor Emelianenko. Both fighters were ranked in the top 10 in the heavyweight division going into this fight.
Not to mention that the two had fought in 2006 with Werdum taking a submission victory.
Before the fight Werdum told MMASavy, “Overeem, be careful because I am going to break you once again. If you stand up with me, I’m going to knock you out, and if you go to the ground, I’m going to submit you.”
Overeem responded, to MMAWeekly, “This fight is going to be different than the last time. You’re going to see a way more aggressive Alistair Overeem, and I’ll be looking for the knockout from the first second.”
Once the cage door closed behind the fighters, it appeared that the prefight promises had been forgotten. Werdum was the more active of the two fighters, landing 69 of 145 strike attempts compared to Overeem’s 48 of 72.
The difference being that Werdum’s strikes were, for the most part, non-power strikes that were used to set up takedowns in the hopes that he would be able to take Overeem to the ground and use his Braziliam Jiu-Jitsu skills—didn’t happen.
Overeem did land some power punches, but he didn’t ever really appear to hurt Werdum and even if he did, he showed zero interest in following Werdum to the ground.
In short, the saying that styles make fights was very evident in this bout, as the two fighters styles made for a lacklustre main event.
Werdum spent most of his time using his strikes to set up takedown attempts, and when Overeem did tag him, he used the impact as an excuse to fall to his back in the hopes that Overeem would follow him down.
As the fight progressed Werdum took longer and longer to stand when ordered to do so by the referee, and Overeem looked to be frustrated at times with Werdum’s tactics.
The folks over at CagePotato summed the fight up pretty well, saying “If that fight was under the UFC banner, Dana White would have immediately issued an apology to the fans and a threat to fire Werdum over another performance like that.”
Suffice it to say that you would be hard pressed to find a fight fan that saw the bout between Overeem and Werdum say it was worth the long wait they endured since its announcement early in 2011.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com