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Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum is officially in the books, so it’s time to look back at all the personalities we talked to leading up to the Showtime event in Dallas and after the fights at the American Airlines Center.
Filed under: Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, Videos
Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum is officially in the books, so it’s time to look back at all the personalities we talked to leading up to the Showtime event in Dallas and after the fights at the American Airlines Center.
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, HeavyweightsCain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they’re the two best heavyweights in mixed martial arts. The rest of the division is a jumble.
Velasquez has dominated…
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Heavyweights
Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they’re the two best heavyweights in mixed martial arts. The rest of the division is a jumble.
Velasquez has dominated the best two opponents he’s fought, Brock Lesnar and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, finishing them both in the first round. Dos Santos has dominated the best two opponents he’s fought, Fabricio Werdum and Shane Carwin, finishing Werdum in the first round and brutalizing Carwin in the first round before coasting to a decision victory. None of the other top heavyweights in MMA has been so impressive against such high-quality opposition.
So in our latest rankings of the top heavyweights in MMA, Velasquez and dos Santos are a clear 1-2. See where 3-10 stack up below.
(Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)
1. Cain Velasquez (1): Although the 9-0 Velasquez deserves to be considered the No. 1 heavyweight in the sport as long as he stays unbeaten, his inactivity because of a torn rotator cuff is going to raise serious questions about whether he’ll be able to return at 100 percent. He’s tentatively scheduled to defend his title on November 19, which is 392 days after he won the belt from Brock Lesnar. It’s never easy for a fighter to return after more than a year off, even if he’s completely healthy.
2. Junior dos Santos (2): After the whipping dos Santos put on Shane Carwin, it’s easy to see why the oddsmakers installed him as the favorite against Velasquez. Dos Santos is an amazing physical specimen whose striking technique is superb. He’s also younger than Velasquez and healthier than Velasquez, and there’s every reason to think he’ll return to the cage looking even better than he did against Carwin.
3. Alistair Overeem (7): I don’t want to diminish what Overeem accomplished against Fabricio Werdum: Overeem handily beat a man who had himself handily beaten Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Silva and Mike Kyle in his last three fights. But Overeem didn’t do anything to make me think he’s on the same level as Velasquez and dos Santos.
4. Brock Lesnar (3): From all indications, Lesnar will sit out for well over a year when it’s all said and done: He fought Velasquez on October 23, 2010, and he likely won’t fight again until 2012. With his health problems and long periods of inactivity, it’s hard to see Lesnar ever becoming the champion again.
5. Fabricio Werdum (5): Werdum is the best heavyweight grappler in the world, but he’ll never be the best heavyweight MMA fighter in the world until he figures out a way to really exchange with good strikers. Werdum’s usual method is to get passive when a good striker hits him. Sometimes that works — as it did against Fedor, who foolishly jumped into Werdum’s guard after knocking him down. But usually it fails, as it did in Werdum’s decision losses to Overeem and to Andrei Arlovski. (Of course, Werdum’s stand-up really failed when he fought dos Santos, who knocked him cold in 81 seconds.)
6. Antonio Silva (6): Bigfoot will provide an interesting stylistic matchup with Overeem in the next round of the Strikeforce tournament: Like Werdum, Bigfoot has better Brazilian jiu jitsu skills than Overeem. And unlike Werdum, Bigfoot is big and strong enough to take Overeem down and keep him there. I think Overeem’s superior striking will earn him the win in that fight, but Silva is a threat.
7. Shane Carwin (4): The heart and determination Carwin showed against dos Santos was admirable, but that fight also demonstrated how far removed Carwin is from the truly elite of the heavyweight division. Carwin is still a powerful puncher and a potent force in the heavyweight division, but he’s 36 years old and on the down side of his career.
8. Frank Mir (8): Mir has now won two in a row since the beating he took at the hands of Carwin, and he’s been making noises about getting a second shot at Carwin. That’s a fight the UFC should consider booking.
9. Fedor Emelianenko (9): The greatest heavyweight in MMA history is on a two-fight losing streak and hasn’t won since beating Brett Rogers in 2009. Fedor’s upcoming fight with Dan Henderson is an interesting match-up but won’t do anything to bolster his rankings within the heavyweight division: If Fedor wins it just proves that he can beat someone who’s older and smaller than him, while if Fedor loses it’s another piece of evidence that he’s well past his prime.
10. Josh Barnett (NR): Barnett is now back in the Top 10, having finally gotten sanctioned to fight in America and beaten a relatively good opponent. I don’t think the 33-year-old Barnett is on the same level as the truly elite fighters in the heavyweight division, but I do think he’s good enough to beat Sergei Kharitonov and advance to the tournament final, where he’ll be a dangerous opponent for either Overeem or Bigfoot.
Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsTwo days after winning a unanimous decision victory over Fabricio Werdum that left most MMA fans disappointed, Alistair Overeem shrugged off any criticism of his own fighting style in an appearance on The MMA Hour, saying …
Filed under: Strikeforce, News
Two days after winning a unanimous decision victory over Fabricio Werdum that left most MMA fans disappointed, Alistair Overeem shrugged off any criticism of his own fighting style in an appearance on The MMA Hour, saying it was Werdum’s approach to the fight that prevented much action from happening.
“I won the fight but I was not satisfied,” Overeem said. “I didn’t get a KO. I worked hard, and when i look at the fight, I did dominate him. I stuck to the game plan but you have to give credit to Fabricio — he was prepared. He was not going to get suckered into my game, which is the stand up, and he got me out of my game. His takedowns were not successful, but I think he trained hard for this fight, he really wanted to win. I felt his power and he was there to win.”
However, while Overeem said he understood Werdum’s strategy in the fight, he dismissed those observers who said that Werdum landing more strikes in the bout meant that Werdum actually deserved to win the decision. According to Overeem, the strikes Werdum landed were just a minor annoyance.
“I’m not impressed with his striking,” Overeem said. “He does not hit hard. He was using his strikes to set up his takedowns, but there was no damage. I was annoyed. … When you look at a fight, who’s more dominant? You can see who’s more dominant.”
Werdum’s basic game plan was to get the fight to the ground any way he could, whether that meant attempting a takedown, pulling guard or just flopping on his back. Overeem says he doesn’t respect that.
“That is stalling the fight, or sort of withdrawing from the fight,” Overeem said. “That basically slowed down the fight and kept anything from happening. … Of course I expected him to pull guard, but I didn’t expect him to do it like 30 times.”
As for his future, Overeem said he thinks he’ll be ready to fight Antonio Silva in a few months, and he plans to move from his home in the Netherlands to the United States as his MMA career progresses.
“This is where all the action is happening,” Overeem said. “I like it here and I think I have to be here.”
And further into Overeem’s future, he hopes, is a clash with the UFC heavyweight champion. We don’t yet know who that will be after the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix is concluded, but Overeem said he expects Cain Velasquez to beat Junior dos Santos, and he said he’d love it if he got a chance to fight the UFC champ eventually.
“If the fans want to see it,” Overeem said, “they’ve got to make it happen.”
DALLAS – To Fabricio Werdum, it’s just a joke. To Alistair Overeem, it’s just plain confusing. But when Werdum calls Overeem his “son,” it’s not because he sees a family resemblance in the Dutch behemoth. It’s because he remembers very well what happen…
DALLAS – To Fabricio Werdum, it’s just a joke. To Alistair Overeem, it’s just plain confusing. But when Werdum calls Overeem his “son,” it’s not because he sees a family resemblance in the Dutch behemoth. It’s because he remembers very well what happened the first time they met in a 2006 fight in Japan’s Pride Fighting organization, when Werdum won via submission.
“It’s like, if we play Xbox and I beat you five times: you’re my son,” Werdum told MMA Fighting earlier this week. “It’s not because I’m an arrogant guy. It’s joking around.”
A joke, but at the same time the message is clear: I beat you once, and I can do it again.
Overeem, however, might not be getting that message.
“I still don’t know what that means, so it doesn’t bother me at all,” the Strikeforce heavyweight champion said. “He can talk whatever he wants.”
It’s been five years since Werdum won the first meeting, and a lot has changed. For starters, Overeem grew an entirely different body. Back then he was “a light heavyweight fighting a heavyweight,” he said. He weighed about 220 pounds and had nowhere near the power or the experience that he has today.
The Overeem that strolled into Thursday afternoon’s media workouts looked like a man who would have used the Overeem of five years ago as a Q-tip. Everything on him is the size of something else. His arms are the size of a normal person’s thighs. His thighs are the size of a normal person’s Labrador retriever. If asked to identify the man who lost to Werdum that in Osaka, many of the spectators who were ringside that night would probably point to the present day Overeem and say it looked like a miniature version of that guy.
For Saturday night’s Strikeforce Grand Prix quarterfinal match, Overeem estimates he’ll be about 260 pounds. As his recent K-1 title indicates, he’ll also be a much better striker than the one Werdum faced in Japan, so the result from the first fight might as well be thrown out altogether, at least in his mind.
“[Werdum] doesn’t have a mental advantage,” said Overeem. “He might think that, but for me, it’s not there. I see this as a new fight. He’s grown as a fighter, but so have I.”
For Werdum, the differences are less physical than technical. Back in 2006 he hardly did any stand-up training, he said, “just jiu-jitsu.” Now he’s had time to improve his own striking, though he acknowledges that he probably has to get the fight to the floor in order to win. As for Overeem’s increased size? Werdum is hoping that will be as much a hindrance as a help in the rematch.
“Now he’s a bigger guy, so that means he has to carry more muscles and more weight,” he said. “Probably he’s going to get tired faster.”
That is, if the fight lasts that long.
Overeem has spent just a shade over five combined minutes in the ring in his last three fights, so taking this wrecking ball into the later rounds might be harder than it sounds. That might explain why Overeem is as heavy as a 5-1 favorite according to some oddsmakers. Werdum isn’t exactly known for his takedown skills, and if he has to stand in front of the man who recently earned the right to call himself the world’s best kickboxer, even he doesn’t seem terribly optimistic.
Then again, Werdum’s fight with Fedor Emelianenko was supposed to be equally as hopeless, and look how that turned out. He went in as a heavy underdog, and emerged with one more fighter he can now call his son.
As Werdum reminded reporters on Thursday, that upset happened just about this time last year.
“June,” the Brazilian said with a smile. “It’s my month.”
Filed under: MMA Videos, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, News, Videos
DALLAS — MMA Fighting spoke to Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem about returning to Strikeforce, his rematch against Fabricio Werdum at Overeem vs. Werdum, his place in the heavyweight rankings, fighting for Zuffa and if he found any good horse meat in Texas.
Filed under: MMA Videos, Strikeforce, MMA Fighting Exclusive, News, Videos
DALLAS — MMA Fighting spoke to Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem about returning to Strikeforce, his rematch against Fabricio Werdum at Overeem vs. Werdum, his place in the heavyweight rankings, fighting for Zuffa and if he found any good horse meat in Texas.
Filed under: StrikeforceAfter a far-too-lengthy delay, Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament is finally about to return, with the final two first-round fights taking place on Saturday in Dallas, as Alistair Overeem rematches Fabricio Werdum and Josh Bar…
Filed under: Strikeforce
After a far-too-lengthy delay, Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament is finally about to return, with the final two first-round fights taking place on Saturday in Dallas, as Alistair Overeem rematches Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett takes on Brett Rogers.
What: Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum
When: Saturday, the undercard begins on HDNet at 8 PM ET and the main card starts on Showtime at 10.
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
Predictions below.
Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum
This matches up the best striker in the heavyweight division in Overeem with the best grappler in the heavyweight division in Werdum. The first time these two fought, in Pride in 2006, Werdum’s grappling got the better of Overeem, who tapped to a kimura in the second round.
But Overeem is a much, much better fighter now than he was then. For one thing, he’s gone through an extraordinary physical transformation and is packing on about 30 pounds more muscle. For another, he has refined his kickboxing to the point where he won last year’s K-1 World Grand Prix Final. Werdum isn’t facing the same Overeem he was in Pride.
Werdum is also coming off the biggest win of his career, against Fedor Emelianenko a year ago, but I can’t help but question whether the long layoff since the Fedor fight is going to be a problem for Werdum, who hasn’t always stayed in top shape between fights. I like Overeem to smash Werdum and make a strong case that he’s the most dangerous heavyweight in all of MMA.
Pick: Overeem
Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers
Barnett is a heavy favorite and has accomplished far more in his MMA career than Rogers, but I’m just not convinced that he still has it anymore: After getting busted for steroids before a planned fight with Fedor two years ago, Barnett has only fought twice, and although he won both, neither was against good opposition. I see the heavy-handed Rogers pulling off a surprise TKO win.
Pick: Rogers
K.J. Noons vs. Jorge Masvidal
Noons is fighting for the first time in 2011 after a very active 2010 saw him win three fights and then lose a hard-fought decision to Nick Diaz. Masvidal took it to Billy Evangelista in winning a one-sided unanimous decision in March, but I like Noons to stand and bang with Masvidal and win a decision.
Pick: Noons
Daniel Cormier vs. Jeff Monson
One of the best prospects in the heavyweight division in all of MMA, Cormier is a great wrestler who should have no trouble taking Monson down and controlling. At his best, Monson is a good enough submission grappler to threaten anyone on the ground, but at age 40 Monson is no longer at his best.
Pick: Cormier
Valentijn Overeem vs. Chad Griggs
A year ago, Strikeforce signed Griggs as nothing more than a warm body to throw in the cage with Bobby Lashley. But Griggs surprised everyone with an upset of Lashley, then won another fight with Gian Villante in February. Now he gets Valentijn, Alistair’s older and less talented brother, and I think he’ll make it three in a row in Strikeforce.
Pick: Griggs