It’s safe to say that June has been a good month to fans of Zuffa’s heavyweight warriors.
Last weekend, UFC 131 featured a huge title contender battle between Junior Dos Santos and Shane Carwin, with Dos Santos coming out the definitive winner, giving Carwin one hell of a beat down.
This Saturday, Strikeforce and Dream Heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem will face Fabricio Werdum in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, a bout that will have serious repercussions for the rankings of MMA’s top 265ers.
Overeem, who has been on a tear since moving to heavyweight full-time, is 5-0 in his last five fights and hasn’t lost since 2007. Not surprisingly, he is a -500 favorite according to Bodog.eu.
Critics shouldn’t hastily count Werdum out however, as he thrives as the underdog and has been performing exceptionally well against the division’s top fighters.
No one will forget his submission upset over MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko last June, a win that came nearly a year after he defeated rising star Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Overeem, although decimating anyone to cross his path, has not been facing the best of the best. He hasn’t even faced a high profile fighter since a no contest with Mirko Cro Cop in 2008.
If Werdum were to beat Overeem in a convincing fashion, I would argue that he should be ranked near the top of the heavyweight rankings.
Werdum, who hasn’t tasted defeat since a 2008 TKO loss to Dos Santos, owns wins over some of the sport’s biggest names. He’s the only fighter to submit both Emelianenko brothers, stopped Brandon Vera and Gabriel Gonzaga back-to-back, and already has a win over Overeem.
Defeating Overeem again would be a huge opportunity for the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace to make a big splash in the MMA world and would set him up perfectly to take the Grand Prix title.
Having already beaten “Bigfoot,” the only person who would still pose a threat would be Sergei Kharitonov, who just barely edged Werdum in 2005, winning a split decision at Pride 30.
Taking the Grand Prix title would be a major milestone in Werdum’s career and would catapult him to MMA stardom, and possibly, a UFC title fight in the future.
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