With his victory over Fabricio Werdum at Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum, Alistair Overeem furthered his goal towards becoming the top heavyweight in the world and more importantly reaching the American fanbase.
While the UFC has been dominating the American mixed martial arts scene, fighters outside of the UFC have struggled to gain recognition.
This obvious fact is attributed to the UFC’s supremely talented roster as well as its marketing, the organization has taken the sport leaps and bounds, further legitimizing it as a true sport.
Prior to its acquisition by Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company, Strikeforce remained as the sole competitor to the UFC in the United States.
Their campaign for supremacy was attributed it large part to their Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem who managed to establish himself as the most popular heavyweight outside of the UFC.
He managed to accomplish this largely in part to his achievements in combat sports outside of the UFC, but also because of his attempts at reaching a larger audience as well.
Overeem, already the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion chose to compete in the K-1 World Grand Prix, eventually becoming the only fighter to hold a title in MMA and K-1 in history.
In doing so, he established himself in the combat sports realm as arguably the best striker in the heavyweight class and probably the most significant talent to not be swayed into the UFC’s ranks.
He furthered his campaign as the worlds best heavyweight by then winning the DREAM Heavyweight Championship in a first round KO of a recently released by the UFC, Todd Duffee.
All the while, Overeem was being followed by Eldar Gross and Fabrice Deters, creators of The Reem online, a documentary of Alistair Overeem’s exploits from K-1 through the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
So as Overeem continued his mixed martial arts campaign, the crews followed behind, documenting his fights and life both in and out of the ring, in black and white video.
The production quality is very good, borrowing music from video games to hip hop and more importantly documents his attempts at reaching the American audience, something up until the purchase by the UFC, he had trouble with in Strikeforce.
In the documentary, Overeem, meets with fans in New York at a promotional event for the tournament and even attends a rally to legalize mixed martial arts in the state of New York.
He even finds time to be interviewed by The Source as well as attend the Super Bowl, even giving away passes to a few fans in line.
For “The Demolition Man”, its a way to get himself out there and appeal to audiences that are only familiar with the Brock Lesnars or Cain Velasquezs.
Already highly marketed in Japan due to his size and stature, Overeem is beginning to translate that popularity to an American audience and with Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce, his image can only grow.
He’s already done all he could to make himself a formidable opponent in the ring and avid fans have been clamoring for a fight between him and the UFC Heavyweight champ more than ever.
Now it seems all he has to do is win the tournament, the seemingly final validation he needs to cement his place as the opponent for a heavyweight super-fight and the UFC will market the rest.
So as Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos prepare for their confrontation later this year, Overeem will look to advance to the final of the Heavyweight Grand Prix and become the undeniable heavyweight force outside of the UFC.
Now all Overeem needs to do is win and the UFC will have no choice but to promote a future bout.
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