Tag: UFC 141

UFC: Why Frank Mir Will Be the Kryptonite for Junior Dos Santos

Just days removed from securing the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Cain Velasquez, fans are eager with anticipation to find out who Junior dos Santos will be defending his championship against first.
With the No. 1…

Just days removed from securing the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Cain Velasquez, fans are eager with anticipation to find out who Junior dos Santos will be defending his championship against first.

With the No. 1 contenders match pitting Alistair Overeem against the UFC’s golden boy Brock Lesnar taking place at UFC 141 on Dec. 30, fans will more than likely get their answer in less than one months time.

Frankly speaking though, I do not see either fighter posing any kind of threat to the newly crowned champion.  

Overeem is owner to a well-known stand-up game but lets face the truth, Fabricio Werdum had the better of the striking game when they clashed for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship.

As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the flopping of Werdum he might have walked away the new champion. Overeem also has 11 losses in his career and has lacked elite Heavyweight competition. The chances of him even getting by Lesnar are very slim in my opinion.

Lesnar has an obvious flaw in his game and that is he is 100 percent reliable on scoring a take down and holding his opponent on the ground. JdS has proven time after time that he has been able to avoid the take-down attempt and even when he has been taken down, JdS has shown an amazing ability to quickly regain his feet.

Lesnar’s stand-up game is almost non-exsistent so if JdS is able to continue what he has done up to this point, expect Lesnar to be quickly dispatched in their fight.

So who will be the man to defeat Junior dos Santos if these two are unable to complete the task? That man is the former Heavyweight Champion, Frank Mir.

Mir is possibly the most well-rounded heavyweight in the UFC and maybe in the history of MMA. Reasoning for selecting Mir as the successor to JdS isn’t found in his Jiu-Jitsu background or his improved wrestling. It pertains to one simple aspect, stand-up striking defense.

It isn’t a secret that Mir can end any fight in a matter of seconds with a well timed submission or the fact that he packs a lot of power behind his punches. He is a more diverse striker than dos Santos is and has the talent to block a lot of stand-up punishment, a trait that he hasn’t run into to this point in his career.

Junior dos Santos is a talented striker and seems to do very well working with space but this plays right into the strength of Frank Mir and would allow Mir to dictate where and how he wanted the fight to go.

Fans all around would now consider Cigano to be one of the most talented strikers in the game but he had issues putting away Roy Nelson, a trait that Mir is also known for. Simply said, Mir isn’t easily knocked out.

This is important because even if Mir gets knocked down, will JdS be so willful to swarm all over him like he showed with Velasquez due to the lethal guard that Mir possesses? I’d have to say he would be cautious to say the least.

This fight itself isn’t too far off in the horizon because with a victory over Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira on December 10th at UFC 140, Frank Mir will be on a three fight winning streak. That’s a better win streak than Lesnar, Velasquez, and Carwin combined. 

Will Frank Mir be able to claim his 3rd UFC Heavyweight Championship in the near future, only time will tell but if there is anyone that can defeat JdS, Frank Mir is that man.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 141: Alistair Overeem on Brock Lesnar, "I’m Going to Rip This Guy Apart"

It’s been a long and arduous road for Alistair Overeem up until this point.After struggling as a 205-pound fighter over the years, Overeem has since found success as a bona fide indulgent heavyweight star, going undefeated in his last 11 bouts.His succ…

It’s been a long and arduous road for Alistair Overeem up until this point.

After struggling as a 205-pound fighter over the years, Overeem has since found success as a bona fide indulgent heavyweight star, going undefeated in his last 11 bouts.

His success as of late extends past the cage, as the Dutchman has since parlayed his obvious stand-up prowess to the ring when he participated in the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix tournament, where 16 of the best assembled strikers in the world compete to find out who is No. 1.

In the end, Overeem reigned supreme, besting the likes of Ben Edwards, Tyrone Spong, Gokhan Saki and former K-1 champion Peter Aerts en route to the prestigious title.

Under the Strikeforce banner, Overeem has cinched up the heavyweight title in a bout against hard-hitting UFC veteran Paul Buentello. Some years later, the Reem would make the first defense of his belt in devastating fashion against Brett Rogers before avenging an early-career loss to Fabricio Werdum. Reem took home an uncontested decision victory over the touted Brazilian. 

A consensus Top Three heavyweight star, Overeem has been a part of nearly 50 fights throughout his professional career. Needless to say, the 31-year-old has gathered a long list of accolades that is unrivaled by most men—including Brock Lesnar, whom Overeem meets later this year.

“Experience advantage? Yes, I do I believe I have about ten times as much,” said a confident Overeem concerning his UFC 141 main event tussle against Lesnar, which will take place on December 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

On no shortage of confidence, the Demolition Man was blunt in his approach as far as what his expectations are heading into his bout with the former world champion. 

“I’m going to tear this guy apart, piece by piece.”

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UFC 141: Brock Lesnar Says "I’m Back and I Feel Good"

Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is ready to inject himself back into the division he once ruled not so long ago.The pay-per-view front-runner was recently announced as part of the main event for UFC 141, which takes place on Dec. 30 at the…

Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is ready to inject himself back into the division he once ruled not so long ago.

The pay-per-view front-runner was recently announced as part of the main event for UFC 141, which takes place on Dec. 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where Lesnar will be taking on one of his toughest tests to date.

Though former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem poses a lot of threats—none could be more dangerous than his second battle with diverticulitis. The disease nearly had Lesnar thinking about a new quality of life, as 12 inches of his colon was removed after the invasive procedure earlier this year.

Now, the former WWE star-turned-MMA fighter is in good spirits and thankful for where he is today: back in the UFC fold, preparing for a pivotal bout, which will determine the next No. 1 contender to the title, which Junior dos Santos recently earned with a knockout victory over Cain Velasquez last Saturday. 

“I was just looking to feel better,” Lesnar said during the pre-fight press conference last Friday, regarding the decision to go ahead with surgery.

“I avoided the surgery for as long as I could and it was just a major decision. When you’ve got to go under the knife and have some of your intestines removed, it’s a big deal. Hindsight 20/20, I’m back and I feel good.”

Now, the former collegiate wrestling star can look forward to a battle with a former K-1 star in Overeem, who has been undefeated in his last 11 fights, with eight of those victories ending inside of the first round.

A star in Japan since clinching the K-1 World Grand Prix and Dream titles, Overeem has since parlayed his skills to the states where he was once presided as the champion for the fledgling San Jose promotion, whilst besting rival Fabricio Werdum in their rematch by decision, making Overeem a consensus top-three heavyweight. 

Needless to say, “The Demolition Man” had recorded a long list of accolades outside of the UFC, to which Lesnar is aware of, though the North Dakota native leaves little to the imagination of what he thinks will happen once the two step inside the cage. 

“Alistair’s done a lot of good things overseas and I think he’s had a lot of fights, and it’s an honor for me to get in the Octagon and kick his ass.”

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Reminder: Watch the UFC 141 Press Conference and the UFC on Fox Weigh-Ins Right Here Starting at 5:00 pm ET today

Jus a friendly reminder that there are a couple things left to help waste the remaining hours of your Friday.

First off, the UFC will be holding a press conference to announce UFC 141 featuring a main event number one heavyweight contender match-up between former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem and former UFC champ Brock Lesnar.

We’ll finally get a first hand look at Lesnar’s physique so we can see just how big of a toll his latest bout of diverticulitis took on his body. We’ll also likely get some vague quotes from “The Demolition Man” about his current lawsuit against his former management team and why he chose Xtreme Couture for this camp.

Also on tap are the weigh-ins for tomorrow night’s UFC on Fox extravaganza. It should be interesting to see if the event has a FOX spin on it and if we’ll see any FOX personalities like Gus Johnson sashaying around in the background will full make-up.

Check out the stream after the jump.

Jus a friendly reminder that there are a couple things left to help waste the remaining hours of your Friday.

First off, the UFC will be holding a press conference to announce UFC 141 featuring a main event number one heavyweight contender match-up between former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem and former UFC champ Brock Lesnar.

We’ll finally get a first hand look at Lesnar’s physique so we can see just how big of a toll his latest bout of diverticulitis took on his body. We’ll also likely get some vague quotes from “The Demolition Man” about his current lawsuit against his former management team and why he chose Xtreme Couture for this camp.

Also on tap are the weigh-ins for tomorrow night’s UFC on Fox extravaganza. It should be interesting to see if the event has a FOX spin on it and if we’ll see any FOX personalities like Gus Johnson sashaying around in the background will full make-up.

Check out the stream below.


(Stream courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Alistair Overeem Vows to Tear Brock Lesnar Apart ‘Piece by Piece’

Filed under: UFCSANTA MONICA, Calif. — As long as the media spotlight is on the UFC ahead of the network debut on FOX this Saturday night, the organization figured it might as well make the most of the attention by getting Alistair Overeem and Brock L…

Filed under:

Brock LesnarSANTA MONICA, Calif. — As long as the media spotlight is on the UFC ahead of the network debut on FOX this Saturday night, the organization figured it might as well make the most of the attention by getting Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar to sit down for a minute to promote their heavyweight showdown at UFC 141 on December 30.

And promote it they did, with former UFC heavyweight champ Lesnar flexing and smirking through much of the brief but memorable press conference and former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem promising to “tear this guy apart, piece by piece.”

Lesnar, who had 12 inches of his colon removed back in May after a second bout of diverticulitis, said it took “about six hours” for him to recover from surgery, and responded to questions about whether he’d slimmed down as a result by flexing his biceps and estimating his current weight at around 278 pounds.

“I avoided the surgery for as long as I could,” he said. “I made the decision. When you have to go under the knife and have some of your intestines removed, it’s a big deal.”

Though the bout will mark his UFC debut, Overeem certainly didn’t appear to be in awe of the bigger stage or his big opponent. When it was pointed out to him that he had a significant experience advantage over Lesnar, the Dutch fighter calmly replied that in fact he had “about ten times as much” experience as his American counterpart.

As he told reporters afterward, that experience might manifest itself when he attempts to test Lesnar’s ability to take a punch.

“It took me like 50 or 60 fights to get used to that,” Overeem said. “Now I don’t care if I get hit. If I get hit I’m going to give two back. But that took a while to get there. He’s not there yet, but still, don’t underestimate anybody.”

It was the first time Overeem had come face to face with Lesnar, he said, and he assessed the former champ as a “big guy, like me. I thought he was taller, from the UFC poster, but he’s actually shorter than me.”

Overeem called the Lesnar fight “a dream match-up,” and praised his new training home at Las Vegas’ Xtreme Couture gym as the perfect environment to prepare for a former NCAA champion wrestler like Lesnar.

“I’m ready for anything. Brock is a great wrestler. He’s a big wrestler, he’s a strong wrestler, but I’m a big guy myself. I’m not worried.”

 

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Alistair Overeem Wants to Send Brock Lesnar Back to WWE

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. — MMA Fighting caught up with Alistair Overeem on Friday after he met his UFC 141 opponent, Brock Lesnar, for the first time. Overeem talked about the press conference with Lesnar, the scene, his move to Vegas, his UFC on FOX pick and the Golden Glory lawsuit.

 

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. — MMA Fighting caught up with Alistair Overeem on Friday after he met his UFC 141 opponent, Brock Lesnar, for the first time. Overeem talked about the press conference with Lesnar, the scene, his move to Vegas, his UFC on FOX pick and the Golden Glory lawsuit.

 

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