At UFC 141, Alistair Overeem will be making his heavily anticipated UFC debut. In his first fight, he will not be given an easy fight, he will be taking on former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar.
Many people have counted out Lesnar due to his inactivity, but one thing that is for sure, the Lesnar camp has been very quiet, and the small interactions that have come from the camp have had nothing but positives to describe Lesnar, since he is now able to train to his true potential.
Alistair is always a favorite to win, based off of his look alone. He arguably has the best physique in the sport, but that being said, looks can be deceiving.
Since his lackluster performance against Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem has been in the middle of controversy. He was “expected” to KO Werdum, but instead was out-struck and according to fight metric lost the fight, but since Werdum attempted to pull guard many times it gave Overeem the win. In the fight, Overeem gassed very quickly and the whole time was hesitant to attack because he feared the take down.
Overeem has the experience advantage in this fight, but in 47 professional fights, he has only faced top competition 11 times, posting a 3-8 record in that span. Many people credit the submission game of Overeem since he has 19 submission wins, but when those wins are broken down, only one of those wins was against a man worth crediting in that area, and that is Vitor Belfort, but another notable is Igor Vovchanchyn.
Alistair Overeem is the Strikeforce Heavyweight and the K-1 World Grand Prix Champion. He won the Strikeforce belt against Paul Buentello, and only defended it once against Brett Rogers, whom just lost a fight with UFC veteran Eddie Sanchez.
Going into the Grand Prix, Overeem had a 5-4 record and was part of arguably the smallest talent pool in the history of this legendary tourney. Overeem defeated injury-ridden opponents and once the tourney was over, he became a self-proclaimed legend.
Since the Werdum fight, he has left Golden Glory, signed with the UFC, decided to sue Golden Glory, almost not been licensed due to leaving the country to be with his sick mother the day he was set to be drug tested and he almost got pulled from his fight with Lesnar.
Those reasons alone are tough for any man to be able to focus on a fight. The fact that he is in Holland training and not at Xtreme Couture working hard on his wrestling is not a very good thing to do. Throughout his career, Alistair has never faced a wrestler, let alone a man with the size, strength, speed and cardio that Lesnar possesses.
Lately in MMA, there have been some striker vs. wrestler fights. Chael Sonnen vs Brian Stann and John Makdessi vs Dennis Hallman. They both ended the same, with the wrestler playing to their strengths and getting the win.
If Lesnar gets Overeem to the ground, it is going to be a long night for Alistair.
In your debut for the biggest company in all of mixed martial arts, the last thing you need is to face a man who’s biggest strength is your biggest weakness, and all of the distractions that Overeem has faced as of late are no help at all.
Lesnar has his new share of legal battles based on hunting charges, but he has elected to have his case postponed until mid-January.
The return of Lesnar and the debut of Overeem. Winner gets Junior Dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
Be sure to tune in Friday, December 30, 2011 live on PPV to see who will get themselves one step closer to becoming UFC Champion.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com