The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Alistair Overeem

By Kenneth Lee

It has been said all over again that mixed martial arts fighters are not real strikers, they can’t throw a proper punch and they can’t take a massive blow.


Stereotype fans can say whatever they like to say about MMA fighters but one man stepped up and proved them wrong. Alistair Overeem competed at the K-1 World Grand Prix in 2010 and won the whole thing. K-1 is a prestigious kickboxing company with world class strikers like Badr Hari, Gokhan Saki and Peter Aerts, which all of them fought Alistair and got beat.


Alistair Overeem is special not because of his size, not because of his tools in his arsenal. He is special because he has the heart of a full blown fighter; he has been fighting since he was a teenager in smaller shows making a couple hundred bucks.


He did it not to make a fighting career but to release this energy that he was made to do. If you watch his online documentary on www.thereem.com you could see how much passion and dedication he has to fighting. He is big in his home country and in Japan but he wasn’t widely known in the US before he fought Brock Lesnar.


Before the fight with Brock Lesnar happened a lot of people already wrote Alistair off. Saying that he was not in the same level as Brock and that he was just a paper champion. One of those people happens to be Dana White – the president of the UFC. He made it clear that he thought of Alistair Overeem as to be one of the most overrated fighters on the planet.


On the night of the 30th of December 2011 in Las Vegas, Alistair blew a lot of people away, including me. I expected Brock to at least get one takedown in the fight, but Alistair never let that happen. Alistair Overeem literally picked Brock apart, piece by piece just like he said he would.


He kicked, punched and kneed Brock’s body to suffer. It was all about bad intentions indeed, he was there on a mission, he was there to arrive in the UFC and he did. Alistair is not scheduled to fight Junior dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight championship of the world some months from now.


With this kind of attention I think that it will just all give Alistair the positivity and energy that he needs to take that belt away from JDS. One of the beautiful things about this sport is fighters can channel their energy into training, the way they eat and inside the octagon.


I know for a fact that ultimately there’s a spark in Alistair’s mind that is waiting to come out to go after that championship belt. If Alistair takes the UFC Heavy weight belt, it will solidify him into becoming one of the greatest mixed martial arts fighters all time, pound for pound.


He has done so much and has beaten so many top fighters, he is finally getting the recognition that he deserves. To all Alistair Overeem fans out there, cheers for a wonderful year ahead for the REAL Demolition Man, the REAL K-1 World Grand Prix Champion and the FUTURE UFC Heavyweight champion of the world.

Junior dos Santos may have an advantage as far as speed goes but Alistair Overeem is a world class striker, he has proven that time and time again. The best chance of Junior dos Santos beating Alistair is if he catch him with one of those nasty uppercuts.


Overall I think Alistair can overwhelm him with punches, kicks, knees, takedowns and superior grappling. I see the fight ending under 2 rounds.