'Ubereem' Looks To Clinch a Title Shot With Win at UFC 141

Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem, possibly the most highly touted heavyweight since the heydays of Fedor Emelianenko, will finally grace the UFC Octagon on Friday.
With 35 wins and 11 losses, all outside what many consider to be the sport’s top promotion, fans have been waiting for a long time for the Dutchman to make the transition. Overeem made a name for himself in Pride Fighting Championships as a light heavyweight, fighting some of the best in the sport. He is most well known for his battles with Shogun Rua, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort, and Antônio Rogério Nogueira.
In 2005 until mid-2006, while fighting under the Pride banner, Overeem flirted with fighting at heavyweight, bouncing back and forth between his natural weight at 205 pounds, and at one point fighting as heavy as 256 pounds against Fabricio Werdum. He lost the fight with Werdum by submission in the second round, setting up their rematch years later.
In 2007, he decided to make the move to heavyweight a full time occupation. After a rematch with Kharitonov that ended with Overeem on his back seeing stars, he moved on from Pride to Strikeforce to capture the vacant heavyweight title after forcing opponent Paul Buentello to submit early in the second frame.
After becoming the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Overeem went on a two-fight win streak, finishing both of his opponents. He also squared off with Mirko Cro Cop in a highly anticipated bout under the Dream banner, but it ended in a no contest after Overeem landed an inadvertent knee to the groin while working in the clinch.
Overeem was set to make his first title defense against the then unbeaten, Brett Rogers. The fight was scrapped due to Overeem sustaining a hand injury. In his off time Overeem decided to turn his sights back to the world of K-1 Kickboxing, where he had fought since he was 17 years old. He shocked the kickboxing world when he upset the legendary, three-time champion, Peter Aerts by decision. Overeem couldn’t finish the tournament with a victory, bowing out in the final following a loss to Badr Hadri.
Overeem later made his first Strikeforce title defense against Rogers, but it was after Fedor Emelianenko had already bested Rogers, handing him his first loss. Overeem handled Rogers effectively for half of the first round before ending the fight with a TKO. Just seven months after Overeem successfully defended his title, he went on to win another, this time besting Aerts again for the K1 Kickboxing title. The fight lasted just one round, and Overeem was able to secure the finish to definitively win the K1 World Grand Prix 2010 title.
As if a kickboxing world title, along with the Strikeforce Heavyweight title wasn’t enough, Overeem was booked to fight ex-UFC fighter, and former UFC record holder for the fastest knockout, Todd Duffee under the Dream banner at its annual New Year’s Eve bash. In appropriate fashion, Overeem knocked Duffee unconscious with a strong left hook just 19 seconds into the fight to win the vacant Dream Heavyweight title. With the win, Overeem became the first man in history to win the esteemed K1 Kickboxing tournament, and hold two MMA championship belts at the same time.
The next challenge for the Dutchman came in the form of another tournament, this time in the cage. Overeem was cast as part of Strikeforce’s eight-man heavyweight tournament, where he was set to face Fabricio Werdum in a rematch of their bout five years prior. In the opening round, Werdum looked comfortable to stand and strike with Overeem, which was puzzling to the champ. Overeem took it in stride and began to work his game, but when he shot back with punches, Werdum shot to his back, hoping to bait Overeem into a ground exchange. Overeem would have none of it. The fight played out much the same for the two remaining rounds, and Overeem cautiously played his way to a decision win.
After his quarterfinal win, Overeem was set to advance in the tournament, awaiting the winner of Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers. A controversy between Overeem’s management, Golden Glory, and the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa LLC, caused strife in the negotiations for his next fight. The fissure between the two sides proved to be too great, and Overeem was released from Strikeforce and pulled from the tournament, vacating his title in the process. He later went on to express his dissatisfaction with the way Golden Glory had handled the situation, and fired them.
The UFC quickly snatched him up and negotiated a deal, with his first fight being a number one contender bout against former UFC Heavyweight Champion, and NCAA wrestling Champion, Brock Lesnar. The matchup could not be more perfect, as there is no other MMA athlete that can come close to Overeem in size, and their skill sets could not be more different. To the naked eye, this is a matchup of a specialist versus a specialist, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that Overeem has a significant upper hand. Lesnar, while his wrestling base can be considered among the best in the sport, lacks the skills to even be considered a competent boxer. His footwork is dismal, and his chin lies untested because of the fact that he simply can’t tolerate being hit. The loss to Cain Velazquez exploited this, and Overeem will look to improve upon that notion.
Brock has no choice but to get this fight to the ground as fast as he can, but I’m not sure that will be enough. Overeem, while he doesn’t possess the wrestling chops that Lesnar does, owns over half of his wins by submission. Now to be fair, three of those submissions are due to strikes. Only counting legitimate submissions, The Demolition Man has exactly half of his wins by submission, still an impressive and often-overlooked fact.
Lesnar did show vast improvement in all of his skills in his UFC 116 fight with Shane Carwin, where he won by an arm-triangle choke. Overcoming an early onslaught, Lesnar showed a solid chin, and he didn’t turtle up when he was hit by one of Carwin’s bombs. After overcoming an adverse first round, Lesnar showed a deadly new tool to add to his ground game with a submission. Lesnar already possesses undoubtedly the best ground and pound skills since Mark Coleman invented the technique, and if he can add the threat of submission, his ground game could become one of the best in the division.
Still, even with such a stellar ground game, it won’t be easy to take down the 250 plus pound behemoth that is Alistair Overeem. Overeem doesn’t have a fantastic sprawl, but what he does have is what many call the “Uberknee.” Overeem’s clinch knees are among the best in MMA, and he owes several of his victories solely to the tree trunks he calls legs. If Lesnar chooses to use his trademark bulrush to take Overeem to the ground, he may find one of Overeem’s brutal knees greeting him on the way in. The only protection Lesnar has from these knees is that his takedowns aren’t a typical double-leg. When Lesnar goes in for a takedown, he uses his hips to lift his target, and puts his head into the chest, not next to the hip. With his head elevated, he won’t be as susceptible to the night-ending knee. He still won’t be safe from the clinch game, and that is where Overeem will stop Lesnar’s takedowns, and end his night with a late second round TKO.