Recently in Alistair Overeem Category

Rematch Will Precede Carano vs. Cyborg Main Event Live on SHOWTIME from HP Pavilion, San Jose, Calif.

NEW YORK (July 6, 2009)--STRIKEFORCE World Heavyweight Champion Alistair "The Demolition Man" Overeem (29-11) will put his coveted title on the line and, at the same time, attempt to avenge a previous defeat when he squares off with old nemesis and two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion Fabricio "Vai Cavalo" Werdum (11-4-1) during the live, SHOWTIME® telecast of STRIKEFORCE: "Carano vs. Cyborg" from San Jose, California's HP Pavilion on Saturday, August 15.

"I'm very happy that I'm being given the opportunity to fight him again and I'm looking forward to beating him," said the 29-year-old Overeem who, at 6 feet 5 inches tall and a chiseled 250 pounds, is considered one of the sport's most impressive physical specimens. Overeem hails from The Netherlands and is a longtime member of the country's Team Golden Glory, the fight squad that boasts a host of the world's top martial arts fighters. "This is the one rematch I've wanted. I'm going to punish this guy."

DreamFighters.com staff spoke with Alistair Overeem's management today to try and get a statement on the progress of talks with the UFC, as Mr. Overeem stated in a previous interview with DreamFighters.com.

DreamFighters.com asked management today of Alistair Overeem how talks were going with the UFC. Here is what he had to say.

"We are in contact with UFC, Dream, Affliction among others, more I can not say!"

So, Alistair could be going to the UFC (Lesnar, Mir) or possibly head over to Affliction MMA (Barnett, AA, Fedor). Either way he goes, it should be very exciting to watch him try and climb to the top, as it appears he is very close to the top of his game, and is shocking everyone with his sudden rise in fight quality.

Cro Cop's nemesis, Alistair Overeem, has undergone quite the transformation since his days in PRIDE. Robert K at freefightvideos set up this timeline:

You probably can't see it too well, but this time line goes from 2003 to 2008.

Overeem, although he is 6'5", used to fight at 205. Apparently, he weighed in at 250+ for his Dynamite!! fight with Badr Hari. That is a lot of weight to gain, without adding much in the way of fat, even for a professional fighter. It just makes me wonder if it will affect his cardio, which wasn't great to begin with. As far as I remember, his fights at HW have been short ones - what happens when someone takes him into "deep waters" as they say?

Alistair Overeem - Strikeforce's heavyweight champion - has really come into his own. After being a punching bag for people like Mauricio Rua, Chuck Liddell, Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in PRIDE, Overeem put some weight on his 6'5" frame and has had great success. In this video from NYE's Dynamite!!, Overeem takes on K-1 bad boy Badr Hari, who became the scourge of the kickboxing world when he kicked remy Bojansky as he was down on the canvas in the K-1 world finals.

from Robert at freefightvideos:
The whole world wanted and expected to see Cro Cop fight Alistair Overeem at Fields Dynamite, however he is being presented with an entirely different challenge this NYE. Cro Cop will fight giant Hong Man Choi, a man still very new to MMA. His height is what has made him a dangerous opponent in the ring.

Cro Cop is yet to face Choi in MMA or K1. The Korean is 7'2" tall and weighs 330 pounds. Those numbers exceed even that of Russian boxing champion Nikolaj Valujev.

"Bob Sapp is little heavier than Choi but never the less much shorter. It was the organization's wish that I fight him and I take my orders from them," said Mirko.

After a successful career in Korea's national sport, a combination of Sumo and Wrestling, Choi made the transition to K1. He amassed a record of 17 fights, 12 victories and only 5 loses. He holds victories over the likes of Semmy Schilt, the only person ever to win three straight K1 World GP titles.

"A man his size is very dangerous even without MMA experience. He is skilled, relatively mobile for his height and very strong," explained the Croatian fighter.

Choi's record in MMA stands at 1 and 1. His loss coming the world top ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko exactly one year ago.

"He displayed his incredible strength in the Fedor fight. When Fedor got a hold of his arm he was twice able to simply shrug him. He had him in some difficult positions," Cro Cop said.

Cro Cop holds only one victory in his last four matches. Hong Man Choi is a must-win opponent for him. Should he be successful he'll need to recover from his numerous injuries and hope that 2009 is a lot more like 2006 rather than the past two years.

from nightmare of battle:

Middleweight Fight:
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura

Lightweight Fight:
Joachim Hansen vs. J.Z.Calvan

K-1 Rules Fights:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Takeda Kozo
Gegard Mousasi vs. Musashi

K-1 Koshien Final Fight:
HIROYA/Shimada vs. Kusakabe/Urabe

K-1 Koshien Semifinal Fights:
HIROYA vs. Shota Shimada
Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Koya Urabe

Possible Fights:
Mirko CroCop vs. Alistair Overeem
Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli

Possible Participants:
Choi Hong Man
Semmy Schilt
Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro

Some familiar names in here, and a special WTF??? goes out to the possible Slice vs. Petruzelli fight, if it ever happens. Nobody gives a crap about it over here ... although I wouldn't rule out Kimbo finding a home in Japan. ... Also, we now know Cro Cop and Overeem won't be happening, although I have heard that Cro Cop's replacement might be Sergei Kharitonov. It would be a rubber match between the two, as Overeem scored a TKO against SK with knees, and then SK returned the favor, knocking Overeem out.

from Robert K at freefightvideos:
It looks like Overeem's only chance to fight Mirko Cro Cop this year will really be in the Croatians basement. In yesterdays press conference for Fields Dynamite FEG executive Sadaharu Tanigawa made it official that Mirko Cro Cop would not be fighting Alistair Overeem.

"Alistair is begging for this fight but this fight will not go ahead on NY eve at Fields Dynamite. We will look to mach them up on a different card."

Mirko Cro Cop is a huge star in Japan and this match-up clearly doesn't interest the Japanese public at moment. I'm sure FEG is looking to match him up with a bigger name. As for Overeem a rubber match with Sergei Kharitonov looks likely.

Mirko Responds to Overeem
After another jab by Alistair Overeem over the weekend, Cro Cop contacted Nova TV to tell us his side of the story. In a short phone interview Cro Cop tells us why the NYE rematch hasn't been signed yet.

The accusations keep coming from Overeems camp. The Dutchmen claims that Mirko is deliberately refusing to sign the contract that would make the NYE bout official.

The Croatian fighter vehemently denied those accusations to us.

"Overeem is a fool. He knows too well that is up to the individual organizations to set-up any match-ups. I'm in a difficult situation as I don't know who to prepare for in this upcoming bout. I'm not sure with which sparing partners to go with."

Robert over at betwwx just sent me this translation of a recent interview with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. Looks like he plans to exact revenge on Alistair Overeem for all the verbal jabs (and groin shots too):

Cro Cop goes back to the operating table

Two months before he'll gets to 'revenge' Overeem, Mirko Cro Cop is once again having injury concerns. His leg remains the problem. He confirmed the new injury in an interview with Nova TV.

"The advice I got from my doctors was that fighting Overeem only two months after my knee operation was a suicide mission. I already had missed the July bout and postponing my September bout was not an option for me. I have only my self to blame."

Mirko has confirmed the New Years match with Overeem at K1 Dynamite which will feature 5 MMA matches and 5 K1 matches. However he'll have to undergo another knee surgery after his bout.

"I've had several operations this year, and I'll have to undergo another one straight after the NYE event. Its frustrating to have to undergo all these operations but that's the sportsmen's life. Many others have had it worse then me."

"I'll prepare for the bout in Zagreb. I'll continue my partnership with Ivan Hippolyte and Team Vos but I'll only travel to the Netherlands for a week. I'll invite my dutch sparing partners to Croatia."

When asked about his issues inside the ring:

"The fear of defeat is major motivation for every fight not necessary wounds or physical pain. It can become an issue when you're on a losing streak ."

This happened repeatedly in his fight with Cheick Kongo in the UFC and just recently, with his fight against Alistair Overeem at DREAM.6. I just hope Cro Cop has had all the kids he wants.

Although bloodied, Cro Cop wanted to fight on, but ringside doctors thought otehrwise, as this post from from bloodyelbow.com says:
Cro Cop Wanted to Fight On: "I Knew My Time Would Come"

"Alaister was ahead on points, however its a 15 minute fight and i knew my time would come" said Mirko.

Mirko wanted to continue to fight, however the ringside doctor prevented him from continuing.

"I'm angry it ended this way, it seemed as if he was the dominant one, however i wasn't in trouble for a second and was waiting for my opportunities. I prepared very well because I thought the match could last a while. I thought i would knock him down in the end."

His manager Zvonimir Lučić confirmed that he wanted to continue the fight however the ringside officials prevented it as a precaution.

His manager stated that the injury is not a serious one. He doesn't know when the rematch will take place however Mirko's team want one as soon as possible.

It is thought that Dream could host an event in Korea, before the NYE event.

An interview with Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic, who fights at DREAM.6 against Alistair Overeem on Sept. 23, from nightmare of battle:

CroCop returns to the ring for the first time since his dream debut and exactly two years after winning the Pride OWGP..

Re Overeem comments:
"I was prepared to fight anyone at my debut in Dream but Overeem want available"

"Provocation its part of the sports, however it would be wise of him to save his energy for the ring"

"The most likely winners of the two heavyweight matches me and Kharitonov will face of for the HW title match."

Note: "Might Mo" Siglia vs. Sergei Kharitonov also face off at DREAM.6

Reminds of the game "hangman" ...

It's official - Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic will take on Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in what can only be called a "grudge match" at DREAM.6 on Sept. 23. (BTW, I don't believe this is a title fight).

With the addition of this fight, we have the strongest DREAM card to date in the Japanese organziation's short history. Not only do we have this explosive heavyweight clahs, there's the finals of the middleweight grand prix.

The history between Overeem and Cro Cop is short but razor-sharp. The two fought in PRIDE for several years, but I've heard nothing about their relationship then. Although their was cross-over among PRIDE's two main weight classes, Overeem (light heavyweight) and Cro Cop (heavyweight) never fought.

Overeem's recent comments about Filipovic seem to have come out of left field, accusing Cro Cop, who has had one fight in Japan following his UFC exodus, of ducking him. Overeem has gone so far as to call Cro Cop a "douchebag." Maybe he means it; maybe he's just trying to hype the fight. Not sure on that one.

Cro Cop's response was to ask for DREAM to make the fight happen. Now we're going to see if Overeem can back up what he's been saying. He's had success as of late transitioning from LHW to HW, although his opponents have not been top-notch. Cro Cop, on the other hand, has struggled in the UFC, getting knocked out by Gabriel Gonzaga and schooled (along with some groin shots) by Cheick Kongo.

But I think this is just what Cro Cop needs. I think Overeem has awakened a sleeping giant. Overeem has always had trouble with his cardio. In Cro Cop, he is looking at a kickboxer of at least equal caliber. And Cro Cop, when he's on, has an extra large gas tank to boot. My preciction: left high kick to the head and a free trip to the morgue for Overeem, courtesy of Cro Cop.

Also on the card:
Nick Diaz vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai

middleweight grand prix finals:
Ronaldo jacare Souza vs. Zelg Galesic
Melvin Manhoef vs. Gegard Mousasi

grand prix reserve match:
Dong Sik Yoon vs. Andrews Nakahara

Hideo Toro vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
Sergei Kharitonov vs. Mighty Mo

Overeem

Cro Cop

Ted's Take: This is good. I want to see an enraged Cro Cop get back to the form he once had in PRIDE. Overeem's been talking smack, calling Cro Cop a "douchebag" and accusing Cro Cop of ducking him. We'll see what happens, but it sounds like the biggest fight to hit Japan since PRIDE was dismembered.

from sherdog.com:
Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem (Pictures) confirmed to Sherdog.com that he will meet former Pride Open Weight Grand Prix winner Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (Pictures) at Dream 6 on Sept. 23 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

"The fight is definitely happening, and I'm really glad," the 28-year-old Dutchman said. "I am already training very hard, and I'm 100 percent certain that it will not go the distance. I don't care if it is going to be by knockout or by submission, I don't want the fight to go to a judges' decision. I want to finish Mirko Cro Cop."

Overeem would not divulge if he had received a contract yet for the heavyweight bout.

Should the fight come to fruition, it would be Filipovic's first appearance inside a ring since his first-round obliteration of overmatched Japanese grappler Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures) in March. Overeem, meanwhile, has stayed busy in recent months, as he knocked out Korean Ssireum fighter Tae Hyun Lee (Pictures) in June and submitted dangerous New Zealand kickboxer Mark Hunt (Pictures) in July.