Alistair Overeem’s victory over Fabricio Werdum Saturday at Strikeforce Dallas set up a huge heavyweight battle between Overeem, the current Strikeforce champion, and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, one of the hottest heavyweights on the planet.The winner wil…
Alistair Overeem’s victory over Fabricio Werdum Saturday at Strikeforce Dallas set up a huge heavyweight battle between Overeem, the current Strikeforce champion, and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, one of the hottest heavyweights on the planet.
The winner will advance to the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix final.
With the UFC’s parent company having recently purchased Strikeforce, and with neither of these men displaying a lot of shyness when it comes to expressing their aspirations for the Octagon, there’s a lot more potentially riding on this fight than a flashy trophy.
This should be a great fight between two massive human beings, but I think Bigfoot is in a good position to pull the mild upset in this one.
With Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett putting the first round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix to rest, there are now four fighters remaining in the tournament.One semifinal matchup will see Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Overeem face off a…
With Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett putting the first round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix to rest, there are now four fighters remaining in the tournament.
One semifinal matchup will see Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Overeem face off against former EliteXC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Silva. Meanwhile, the other semifinal will see former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett meet up with dangerous striker Sergei Kharitonov.
However, for the purposes of this article, we are going to be looking at the remaining field as a whole rather than breaking down each semifinal matchup.
With Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett picking up victories at Strikeforce: Dallas, the semifinal matchups of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix are now set. Overeem will meet rising heavyweight Antonio Silva, and Barnett will meet dangerou…
With Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett picking up victories at Strikeforce: Dallas, the semifinal matchups of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix are now set. Overeem will meet rising heavyweight Antonio Silva, and Barnett will meet dangerous striker Sergei Kharitonov.
The date for these semifinal fights has not yet been confirmed, but the bouts will take place before the end of 2011. With the matchups already determined, though, here are some early predictions for how the rest of the tournament will play out.
Josh Barnett’s Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal bout against Brett Rogers was just another day at the office. The former UFC champion warmed up prior to the fight backstage in a mini wrestling bout, which involved some vintage Ric Flair …
Josh Barnett’s Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal bout against Brett Rogers was just another day at the office.
The former UFC champion warmed up prior to the fight backstage in a mini wrestling bout, which involved some vintage Ric Flair chops and a backbreaker finish.
After the warmup, Barnett entered the cage to compete on North American soil for the first time in over two years. His return didn’t disappoint as eager fans watched him put on a technical clinic and pick up the second-round submission victory Rogers.
While many will always criticize Barnett for testing positive for banned substances on three separate outings, it would be incredibly foolish to dismiss his skills. There aren’t many world-class wrestlers in the heavyweight division, and Barnett is one of the few fighters that fits that bill.
He has the ability to take down and control any fighter in the entire tournament. The only fighter with the ability to seriously threaten from his back is Fabricio Werdum, but he was ousted by Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in Saturday’s main event.
With the semifinal bouts finally set, who should be the favorite to win the Grand Prix?
Overeem walked into the American Airlines Center on Saturday night with that honor, but after his performance against Werdum, it’s hard not to like Barnett’s chances.
It’s definitely understandable why some may disagree with that statement. Werdum is a much better fighter than Rogers. With Overeem defeating the tougher opponent, how can Barnett surpass him as a tournament favorite?
There isn’t a single easy bout in this tournament, but Barnett is on the most favorable side of the bracket. After an incredibly tough bout against Werdum, Overeem now faces an even stiffer challenge stylistically in Antonio Silva.
Meanwhile, Barnett coasted through Rogers and slid into the semifinals slot against Sergei Kharitonov. There are a plethora of media outlets deeming Kharitonov as the dark horse of the tournament. The Russian Kickboxer is an attractive pick, and he certainly has the skills to make waves in the tournament.
Still, Kharitonov has shown his struggles against strong grapplers, most recently in his April 2009 submission loss to Jeff Monson.
It isn’t far-fetched to think Barnett gets the fight to the ground and locks up another submission or grinds out a unanimous decision.
Overeem is still one of the most dangerous heavyweights in the world, but he doesn’t have the same aura he did before he fought Werdum. As fans watched “Ubereem” dominate all comers, his problems in past fights somehow disappeared without ever being tested, until now.
Overeem still showed cardio issues and a tendency to fade as a fight goes into deeper waters. He also showed some major holes in his striking defense. Barnett most likely wouldn’t be able to exploit Overeem on the feet, but he should be able to take the fight to the floor and wear the big man down.
Silva could pose problems for Barnett, but he already showed that he was susceptible to being put on his back in his bout with Werdum back in November 2009.
Barnett isn’t the popular choice. Despite his extended WWE-like post-fight promo, most fans will continue to root against him. He has definitely talked the talk. Can he finally walk the walk?
The moment many had been waiting for finally came to fruition this past Saturday night in Dallas, Texas as the second leg of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament quarterfinal played out in front of a crowd of over 7,000 fans at the American Airl…
The moment many had been waiting for finally came to fruition this past Saturday night in Dallas, Texas as the second leg of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament quarterfinal played out in front of a crowd of over 7,000 fans at the American Airlines Center.
The Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem was making his third appearance in four years in a non-title fight to move on to the semifinals of the tournament against Antonio Silva.
Most importantly, fans were finally going to see Overeem take on a legitimate top-10 heavyweight in mixed martial arts, Fabricio Werdum.
Overeem came out the victor with a unanimous decision over Werdum, but he certainly did not do much to impress his detractors.
Werdum, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt know for a slick ground game pathetically tried to get Overeem to the ground for all 15 minutes and quite possibly handed the Dutchman the victory by pulling guard at every chance he had.
Despite Overeem being able to rag doll and shrug off Werdum when ever he tried to get the fight to the ground, Overeem who is supposed to be the best heavyweight striker in mixed martial arts looked average in the stand up to say the least.
Junior dos Santos knocked out Werdum in one round, Overeem, the current K1 kickboxing champion never really had Werdum in any danger.
Werdum outpointed Overeem in the standup and if he hadn’t have tried to pull guard or shoot for takedowns so often who knows what would have happened. It was very surprising to see Werdum land so much out of the clinch, something Overeem has become famous for himself.
Luckily for Overeem, his opponent’s poor game plan played to his favor in the judges’ score cards and he was able to get himself in to the semifinal slot against Antonio Silva.
Of course, Overeem did land some power shots that dropped Werdum a couple of times, but he never followed them up and he was headhunting as opposed to stringing together combinations to set something up.
Even more disappointing was the complete lack of conditioning shown by both athletes last night. Early on in Round 2 of the three-round affair, both men were gasping for air. Even by the time the post-fight interview came around with Gus Johnson, Overeem was still fighting to catch his breath.
Despite the weak performance last night, there are a few things to be considered.
This fight was a rematch for Overeem and he was fighting to avenge a loss. The last time the two fought, Werdum submitted him via kimura back in 2006. Overeem was obviously wary of the Brazilian’s ground game this time around and worrying about the takedown may have affected his aggressiveness in the standup.
Nerves may have crept into Overeem’s mind just before the fight and an adrenaline dump may have affected his cardio.
It was arguably his first heavyweight fight against a top-10 opponent, it was a revenge match and the expectations were set high. These are hard mental hurdles for anyone to overcome and considering Overeem’s history during his light heavyweight days where he wilted and lost on many occasions as soon as the level of competition was raised, it is no surprise that he struggled a bit tonight.
He is the K1 heavyweight champion, he has won title fights and he has been fighting for more than a decade, so one would hope that he learned how to manage the mental game, but you never know.
After the performance last night by Overeem, one has to assume he is coming in as the underdog for his next fight against Antonio Silva. Unlike Overeem last night, Silva put an absolute clinic and earned a second-round stoppage against arguably the best heavyweight in the world in Fedor Emelianenko.
Overeem certainly won’t have a size advantage over Silva who is rumored to weigh close to 290 pounds on fight night and it seems as if Silva may have the larger gas tank as well.
Poor performance aside, Overeem still won the fight and let’s be honest, any heavyweight who can throw around Werdum the way Overeem did has some serious power and explosiveness.
He obviously has to go back to the drawing board, but he still has the championship belt. Even the best fighters in the world can have bad performances and still be the best, check out Georges St-Pierre’s performance against Jake Shields or Anderson Silva‘s performances against Demian Maia and Thales Leites.
Overeem still is the best heavyweight on the Strikeforce roster, he just needs to come out and redeem himself in his next fight.
One thing that appears to be prevalent with Overeem and Golden Glory fighters is there seems to be a conditioning issue. It was just last week that John-Olav Einemo made his UFC debut where he lost in the second round after running out of gas and finally succumbing to the knees and punches of Dave Herman despite landing some heavy strikes of his own.
The Golden Glory fighters usually try to come out strong and go for broke in the early going, but if their opponents can make it through that first flurry the opponents’ chances of winning increase exponentially.
Let’s forget about the best heavyweight in Strikeforce for a second and flip our attention to the UFC heavyweight division. Whether Overeem or another Strikeforce heavyweight is the best in the promotion, how do they stack up to the UFC’s best?
Tonight’s main event seemed very telling of the fact that the current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and the top contenders: Junior dos Santos, Shane Carwin, Brock Lesnar and possibly Frank Mir appear to be a cut above the guys fighting in Strikeforce.
The top five guys in the UFC can go more than a round without gassing and the guys in Strikeforce are going to have to get to work if there is any talk of a title unification bout between the champions of each promotion at some point.
Leon Horne has been contributing to Bleacher Report for three years now. He focuses mainly on mixed martial arts, but he has also written about tennis, football and hockey. Just send him a message if you want to talk sports or discuss any opportunities. You can follow him on Twitter for updates:
To those riding the Alistair Overeem hype train, are you still on board?Surely, a few “faithful” fans tiptoed off the bandwagon after watching his lackluster performance on Saturday night in his Strikeforce Grand Prix quarterfinals bout with Fabricio W…
To those riding the Alistair Overeem hype train, are you still on board?
Surely, a few “faithful” fans tiptoed off the bandwagon after watching his lackluster performance on Saturday night in his Strikeforce Grand Prix quarterfinals bout with Fabricio Werdum.
The highly anticipated bout turned out to be a back and forth slop fest that invalidated Josh Barnett’s claims that the best heavyweight in the world would come out of the Strikeforce tournament.
It was still a major victory for Overeem, who avenged a May 2006 loss and picked up his first win over a ranked heavyweight. The win vaults “The Demolition Man” up the heavyweight ranks, but it won’t be as high as some presumed.
Before the fight against Werdum, Overeem was pretty much the uncrowned king of the heavyweight division. He hadn’t defeated a ranked heavyweight, but the added size and incredible winning streak propelled the faith in most fans.
Despite victories over Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva and Overeem, Werdum came into the bout as a huge underdog. The majority of the media were calling for Overeem to walk through Werdum and pick up the first-round knockout.
Instead, fans were grounded by the slow battle between two cardio-depraved heavyweights. For those that have watched Overeem compete over the years, the bout against Werdum had a few sprinkles of déjà vu.
Overeem’s gas tank only held up a little over a round, and we started to see him fade as he has many times in the past.
He should definitely get props for hanging tough and earning the decision. The Overeem of the past would’ve looked for a way out.
Werdum’s performance was just plain awkward. He actually looked like the more efficient striker in the standup exchanges, but instead of working his strikes and capitalizing on a fading Overeem, the majority of his time was spent on his back smiling and pleading for Overeem to haplessly jump in his guard.
Plenty of fans have put Overeem on a pedestal as the best striker in the heavyweight division, but he was almost bested in the exchanges by a submission specialist. Werdum’s hands are definitely underrated, but he isn’t necessarily considered a world class striker.
What about guys like Junior dos Santos?
It only took Dos Santos a little over a minute to sing Werdum his lullaby at UFC 90. Overeem showed major defensive holes in his ability to block punches and effectively counter. Power is an incredible equalizer, but it can also work against you if you can’t land that fight-ending shot.
Overeem’s win puts him behind Cain Velasquez and Dos Santos in the heavyweight rankings. Die-hard Overeem fans will likely disagree, but the entire heavyweight division runs through Dos Santos and Velasquez, who have both consistently fought the tougher opposition.
Where does Overeem go from here?
He’s going to have a major task on his hands in dealing with “Bigfoot” Silva in the semifinals. Silva is another elite level striker that will capitalize on any lingering holes in Overeem’s standup.
It would be nice to see Overeem pump out a jab or utilize smaller strikes to setup bigger ones. He tends to wear himself out by only throwing power punches.
Regardless of his performance, Overeem 2.0 still has the potential to do big things in the sport.
If you’re still on the bandwagon, you may want to buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
