Alistair Overeem may be the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix champion and the former Strikeforce heavyweight champion, but he has still not proven himself to be a top heavyweight.
On June 18, in his opening -round match of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Overeem avenged a 2006 Pride loss by defeating Fabricio Werdum by decision.
Things got weird after that though. Overeem was supposed to continue on in the tournament by taking on Antonio Silva in the semi-finals. But apparently Overeem couldn’t fight because of an injured toe and the next think you know Strikeforce stripped him of his belt, released him from Strikeforce and threw his entire future up in the air.
Overeem just came off the biggest win of his career and now is without an organization to fight for. It has been rumored that he could be fighting in Russia at a United Glory event in October of this year but nothing has been confirmed at this point. After having the biggest year of his career in 2010, the multi-sport champion now sits in limbo.
Will Alistair Overeem ever fight in the UFC?
If it is up to Overeem he will do just that. He echoed this sentiment on this past Friday’s Inside MMA, saying that he believes himself to be the No. 3 fighter in the world behind UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and top contender Junior dos Santos.
I tend to agree with him on this issue. He not only is a good fighter, but he looks like a monster and that Brock Lesnar-type of body and his knockout ability will make a very marketable fighter in the UFC heavyweight division. Can you imagine if Lesnar returned in the spring of 2012 and faced Alistair Overeem in the latter’s UFC debut? Now that would sell.
Unfortunately, his spot in the UFC depends much more on his management and the UFC brass not being able to negotiate on terms of payment. This seems so simple yet is complicated and tricky to fix. The fans of MMA can only sit back and hope that Alistair Overeem is fighting on the UFC New Year’s card instead of lesser competition in Japan.
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