(Photo courtesy Golden Glory)
Alistair Overeem capped off a perfect 2010 by winning the Fields K-1 Grand Prix over the weekend, and in doing so the Strikeforce heavyweight champion made history by becoming the only fighter to hold the coveted kickboxing title and an MMA championship belt at the same time.
"The Reem," who won two bouts earlier this year to earn a berth in the final defeated a trio of opponents at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo Saturday to win the tournament. Following a quarter-final decision victory over Ernesto Hoost protegee Tyrone Spong, Overeem broke Gokhan Saki’s arm in the semi-finals, forcing his Golden Glory teammate to quit in the first round and went on to knock out Peter Aerts in the final.
Aerts did "The Demolition Man" a favor by knocking perennial tournament favorite Semmy Schilt out of the tournament in the semi finals. According to sources close to Aerts, the Dutch fighter was pissing blood after the fight with Schilt and had to be cleared to fight in the final because a cut he sustained on his eyelid against Schilt was deep and wouldn’t stop bleeding for some time after the match.
What’s interesting is that Golden Glory anticipated that Overeem may have to face Saki at some point in the tournament, and as such, they would not allow the two fighters to spar together or train in the gym at the same time. During their bout, both trainer Cor Hemmers and manager Bas Boon excused themselves from cornering either fighter and told Overeem and Saki that it was up to them to settle things in the ring without them.
Does anyone else get goosebumps when reading this?
These guys are fighters. No excuses. No, "I’ll never fight a teammate," BS; just two competitors doing what their jobs, friendship aside. Some MMA teams *cough….AKA…cough…Team Jackson…cough*… need to take a lesson in Budo from these guys.
If you missed the event, we got you covered with the videos (in order) after the jump.