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Alistair Overeem in a Must-Win Fight Against Ben Rothwell

Alistair Overeem stepped into the Octagon on Dec. 30, 2011 against Brock Lesnar as the best heavyweight fighter without any Octagon experience. He was seemingly big enough to contend with the likes of Lesnar and arguably swift enough to contend with th…

It took just over two minutes and one liver kick to prove the former heavyweight champion an unworthy foe. Lesnar went on to retire, and Overeem was set to take on dos Santos to finally put an end to all of the hypothetical discussions—the true heavyweight king would be crowned.

The hypothetical discussions wouldn’t go out without a fight, though—Overeem failed his pre-fight drug test in the months leading up to his championship duel due to elevated testosterone levels, and he was effectively removed from a chance to earn UFC gold.

The Reem would serve his suspension and return to face Antonio “Big Foot” Silva 15 months removed from the day he dismantled Lesnar. He had his sights set on the crown; Silva was merely a stepping stone.

Just one kink in Overeem’s chain: Silva wasn’t aware of his role.

Overeem couldn’t capitalize on two dominant rounds against his Brazilian counterpart, leading to one of the more memorable comeback performances in recent history.

The same goes for his next fight against Travis Browne: initially dominant, but eventually played hostage to his inability to capitalize against a weakened opponent.

Almost three years removed from his UFC debut and the masses crediting Overeem as the greatest heavyweight on the planet have all but disappeared.

That’s not to say his chances at, at the very least, challenging for the heavyweight throne have all but passed him by.

Currently one fight removed from a victory over Frank Mir and a bout against Ben Rothwell on the horizon, Overeem might still have a chance to at least try to revitalize the ocean of support. But at 34 years old and with 15 years of wear and tear from competing in professional combat sports, Overeem might not have enough time to make another run for the gold should he lose to Rothwell this Friday at UFC Fight Night 50.

He has to win. He has to win now.

Cain Velasquez is set to defend his title against the only worthy opponent left in the division: Fabricio Werdum. The title picture gets pretty cloudy after that—and it’ll stay that way unless Overeem returns to his former glory.

A win against an unranked opponent hardly ever warrants any victor a shot at the title, especially when said victor is on the outskirts of the division’s top five. Luckily for Overeem, he resides with the big guys, and the UFC is desperate to find a decent big guy with a respectable winning streak to challenge its champion.

A two-fight winning streak accompanied by several non-UFC championship accolades should be plenty reason to grant the former Strikeforce heavyweight champion a shot at the title. A loss to Rothwell—especially one akin to the ones he had against Silva and Browne—should send Overeem to the depths of heavyweight anonymity.

That’s not to say that Overeem—or any other heavyweight, for that matter—will ever be more than two to three impressive victories away from punching his ticket to compete for the crown. Competing in a division where the champion’s injuries only allow him to compete once or twice a year might pose some issue for the aging heavyweight, though.

Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.

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Bobby Lashley: Everything You Need to Know About Bellator’s Latest Heavyweight

The worlds of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts will collide on a major scale yet again when Bobby Lashley steps into the Bellator MMA cage on Friday. He walks into the heavyweight division as the current TNA World Heavyweight champion, but that will not mean a thing to combat fans. Much of the fight-sports community may know of Lashley for his accolades in the world of choreographed fighting, but this run is an attempt to gain MMA fame at the same time.

The fighter known as “The Dominator” will bring a 10-2 record when he debuts during Bellator 123. Most fans and experts alike would pick Lashley‘s record apart for the lack of wins against viable competition in the sport. Victories over Wes Sims and Bob Sapp are perhaps his best wins to date. Unfortunately for Lashley, his two defeats have come to James Thompson and Chad Griggs; two fighters who could be considered “journeymen” in most mainstream circles. Still, that has not deterred the athlete from attempting to make another run in mixed martial arts.

“I want to swing for the fences and go after some of the bigger names,” Lashley told Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie. “This is my last run, so I don’t want to make it gradual. Some of these next few fights, there’s some guys I really want to get in the cage with.”

Bellator MMA is the right place for Lashley to attempt this push. Since bringing Scott Coker into the company as the new president, it’s clear that the company is looking to move more towards entertainment than the strict format that handcuffed the company. Match making will now favor a more creative approach with the intention of attracting the mainstream combat-sports fan.

“I think what we want to see is where our championship fights put star vs. star, so we’re going back to basics,” Coker said in a report by Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. “We’re going to build the company with a strong foundation and move forward from there.”

Lashley is coming around at the perfect time for Bellator MMA to use him as a part of that foundation. The heavyweight division is one of the more prominent groups in combat sports. Bellator does not have a strong roster of heavyweights and Lashley can quickly find himself in position to challenge for their world title. He immediately has more star power than current heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov. When paired with the fact that he is the current TNA wrestling heavyweight champion, the cross promotional opportunities would be abundant. Even through outlets such as TMZ are reporting that Spike television is separating themselves from the TNA wrestling promotion, there is still value that can be pulled from his presence in Bellator‘s circle cage.

Lashley will also greatly benefit during this return if he can string together victories. His initial attempt to gain Brock Lesnar-like fame in the world of mixed martial arts did not go so well, but he still has enough name value to be worth Bellator‘s investment. However, he still needs to win and that fact makes his coming fight against Josh Burns just as important for Bellator MMA as it is for Lashley himself.

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MMA’s All-Tough-Guy Team

The sport of mixed martial arts has a plethora of tough guys. Very few participants in MMA are viewed as anything other than tough. Some fighters stick out as being especially tough and can give and take what seems like immeasurable amounts of punishme…

If we were to assemble a team of the toughest fighters in MMA today, what would it look like?

The definition of a tough guy is “a menacing man.” One of the criteria for our All-Tough-Guy Team will be that fighters need to be active. So Kazushi Sakuraba, Fedor Emelianenko, Randy Couture and Rickson Gracie won’t be on the team.

A certain amount of the toughness requisite to making the team needs to be exhibited outside of the cage. Mean-muggin’, ice-grillin’ and keeping it real 24/7 are all things that might earn a fighter a spot on the team.

But not shoving.

Most of what makes someone tough enough for the All-Tough-Guy Team happens in the cage. Epic comebacks, ability to take punishment and finishing instinct will carry the most weight in deciding who makes the top of the list, but everyone on the All-Tough-Guy-Team could make at least a serviceable Avenger or Expendable.

Special consideration will be given to guys who are generally pretty nice when they aren’t fighting but are just that tough when they get in the cage.

Here is MMA’s All-Tough-Guy Team.

Begin Slideshow

MMA’s All-Tough-Guy Team

If we were to assemble a team of the toughest fighters in MMA today, what would it look like?

But not shoving.

Special consideration will be given to guys who are generally pretty nice when they aren’t fighting but are just that tough when they get in the cage.

Here is MMA’s All-Tough-Guy Team.

Begin Slideshow

MMA’s All-Tough-Guy Team

If we were to assemble a team of the toughest fighters in MMA today, what would it look like?

But not shoving.

Special consideration will be given to guys who are generally pretty nice when they aren’t fighting but are just that tough when they get in the cage.

Here is MMA’s All-Tough-Guy Team.

Begin Slideshow

‘King Mo’ Lawal’s Career Will Be in a Death Spiral If He Loses to Dustin Jacoby

“King Mo” Lawal’s run of unfortunate outcomes has continued its pace for nearly four years. Even though he’s found victory multiple times during that period, his career has not experienced the “boom” that was once expected. Now,…

“King Mo” Lawal‘s run of unfortunate outcomes has continued its pace for nearly four years. Even though he’s found victory multiple times during that period, his career has not experienced the “boom” that was once expected. Now, after serious injuries, being fired from the UFC and a stunning knockout defeat, Muhammed Lawal is at a career crossroads coming into Bellator 123. Dustin Jacoby will be the individual standing across from him and he has the potential to send the former champion’s career into a complete downward spiral.

If “King Mo” could step into a time machine, 2010 would perhaps be his first destination. This was the year when everything was going great for the Las Vegas native. Although things would not end well later on in that calendar, he would win the Strikeforce title from Gegard Mousasi in April of 2010. To this date, this is still the biggest win of his career. Since that point Lawal has not had the easiest of times being the high-level mixed martial artist that many pundits thought he would become. In fact, his career has been quite the letdown.

First, it was the TKO defeat to Rafael Cavalcante where he would lose his only moment of holding a mainstream title. After a win over Roger Gracie he would be forced out of competition due to a knee injury, which would become a recurring issue in his career. In 2012 he would then defeat Lorenz Larkin just to have the win overturned because the Nevada State Athletic Commission would find Drostanolone in his drug-test results, as reported by Ken Pishna and Erik Fontanez of MMA Weekly.

Things would only get worse for the former champion. The UFC would purchase Strikeforce, which would give them access to Lawal fighting in the Octagon, however he would never have the chance to perform for the organization. After his hearing in front of the NSAC he made inflammatory statements towards NSAC Commissioner Pat Lundvall on his Twitter profile (via MMA Mania). That comment would result in his jettison from the organization as a whole as they would not stand by and allow him to make such statements.

Lawal did not stay a free agent for long as Bellator would pick him up and give him an opportunity to become a professional wrestler in TNA Wrestling while competing in in their MMA promotion. The way he was announced into the organization made it seem like the company was expecting him to become a major star. Unfortunately for all the parties involved, that would not occur.

In his second fight for the promotion, “King Mo” would face Emanuel Newton. In the first round of the contest he would eat a spinning back fist that would make Lawal the victim of one of the most played knockouts of 2013. Lawal would come back and win two straight just to be defeated by Newton again; this time in an even more convincing fashion.

Bellator MMA would get another opportunity to feature Lawal dead center as he would face Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at Bellator 120. Lawal would suffer a decision defeat but what was worse is that many felt he actually won the bout with his wrestling attack. This would be yet another setback for Lawal that would leave him looking like the odd man out in the pecking order within the company.

Lawal has a winning record with Bellator MMA at 4-3 but he’s yet to defeat any opponent of value. His inability to win the big contests has placed a damper on the outlook of his career. This is where Jacoby enters the picture. At 10-3 Jacoby can actually be called a “UFC Veteran” even though he’s suffered two defeats in the promotion. According to MMA Oddsbreaker, Jacoby will come into the event a +400 underdog to Lawal‘s -600 favorite. Just as the numbers represent, Lawal has everything to lose in this fight.

If Jacoby can pull off the upset victory, which he is capable of doing, “King Mo’s” career would be in jeopardy. As Scott Coker leads Bellator into reshaping itself as a MMA promotion, Lawal‘s value to the organization would be damaged with another defeat. He would also place himself to be cut from the organization if he can’t live up to the standards that were placed on him when signed. To make the matters worse, he would have a difficult time rejoining the professional wrestling world as well. According to TMZ, Spike TV recently canceled TNA Wrestling which means they may not be interested in bringing back their high-price “star.” If he were to lose his slot on the Bellator roster, his opportunities in MMA on the mainstream level would be drastically low.

Injuries, controversy and disappointing performances have plagued Muhammed Lawal‘s career. The former Strikeforce champion is facing a major uphill climb that begins at Bellator 123. The world of professional sports is a fickle place that can turn on an individual with one good or bad performance. If Lawal goes out and earns a win in a drastic, highlight-reel fashion, then he will be on his way to earning the love once again of the MMA community. If not, this may be his last time performing in a mainstream mixed martial arts promotion.

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