Alistair Overeem

Alistair Overeem

Alistair "Ubereem" Overeem is the former Strikeforce heavyweight champion, the K1 tournament champion for 2010 and the current Dream heavyweight champion. He is a kickboxer and a mixed martial artist.

Strikeforce and Dream

Overeem finally made his first defense of his heavyweight belt, after three years, against Brett Rogers, winning by dominant technical knockout due to referee stoppage.

He was set to face former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez in Dream but the fight was called off shortly. Overeem was then set to defend his Strikeforce belt against Antonio Silva but that was called off as well. After winning the K1 title in December, Overeem was in talks to face Josh Barnett for the inaugural Dream heavyweight title at the year-end Dynamite show.

Instead, Overeem was set to face fellow Strikeforce veteran and former professional wrestler Bobby Lashley for the vacant title at the event. That fight was called off as well and about a week and a half before the event, Alistair was confirmed to be facing UFC veteran Todd Duffee in a Dream heavyweight interim title fight despite the fact that there had never been an official Dream heavyweight title. Overeem destroyed Duffee in about twenty seconds to earn the belt via knockout.

He next signed to face Fabricio Werdum in the first round of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament. In May 2011 before the fight with Werdum, rumors floated around about Overeem abandoning the tournament and his title altogether and heading to the UFC. Overeem remained in the tournament and dominated a strangely sedated Werdum, winning via unanimous decision.

With the victory, Overeem advanced in the tournament bracket to face well-rounded Antonio Silva in the semifinal round. Shortly after the bouts were announced for a September event, Overeem dropped out after a dispute between him and Zuffa. He was replaced by Dan Cormier. Overeem's injuries were revealed to be more serious than originally stated, including a broken toe and a broken rib. He was surprisingly cut from the Strikeforce promotion.

Overeem next vacated his Strikeforce title completely and signed with the UFC.

UFC

He next made his long-awaited UFC debut against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. The winner of the fight would be rewarded with a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos.

Before the fight, Overeem stated, "This fight isn't going to last two rounds. Mr. Lesnar is the best wrestler in the division, but he has a big weakness: He cannot strike. And unfortunately I am the best striker in the world."

Lesnar responded to Overeem's comments, stating: "He says he is going to knock me out inside two rounds. That's his dream. The reality is if I execute my game plan, Alistair Overeem cannot win this fight."

Overeem stuffed Lesnar's lone desperate takedown, stalking him against the cage and repeatedly landing large knees to the body. Overeem dropped Lesnar two minutes in with a punishing body kick to the liver and pounded him out with punches for the victory; Lesnar talked with obvious respect about Overeem in the post-fight interview before retiring from MMA.

With the stunning victory over Lesnar, Overeem earned a shot at the intimidating UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos in May 2012. A few months before the fight, Overeem tested positive for steroids from the Lesnar fight and was pulled from the title bout. He was replaced by former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. Overeem was suspended for a full year after the December test.

String of Knockout Losses

After several months of speculation while Overeem was suspended, Alistair was announced midway through November 2012 to be facing fellow Strikeforce veteran Antonio Silva in February 2013. After dominating "Bigfoot" for two rounds, Overeem got overly confident suffering a brutal third round knockout loss to Silva.

Overeem was soon after set to face Junior Dos Santos, likely a UFC heavyweight eliminator. Unfortunately he was injured and replaced by Mark Hunt.

After recovering Overeem next signed to fight prospect Travis Browne. After dominating the first round rocking Browne repeatedly with knees to the body in the clinch, Overeem began to tire and his hands dropped and he failed to defend the repeated front kicks of Browne. Browne eventually landed one of the strikes to the chin of Overeem dropping him for a knockout victory near the end of the first round.

Overeem next signed to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. He was quoted as saying "If I lose to Frank Mir I might as well be doing something else." Overeem dominated Mir en route to a unanimous decision.

He was next set to fight Ben Rothwell. Rothwell knocked out Overeem in the very first round. It was Overeem's third knockout loss in four fights.

Title Run

Overeem wasted little time in signing in September 2014 for possibly his last chance to surge back towards the UFC heavyweight title or indeed even remain on the UFC roster - a December bout against returning veteran Stefan Struve. Overeem knocked out Struve near the end of the first round.

Shortly thereafter Overeem signed to fight veteran Roy Nelson. Overeem dominated Nelson en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Overeem then signed to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos. Overeem defeated Dos Santos via a stunning and impressive second round knockout.

Overeem next fought former UFC heavyweight champion and training partner Andrei Arlovski, knocking Arlovski out as well in the second round.

Overeem recived a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic with the Arlovski win. Miocic unfortunately knocked Overeem out towards the end of an action-packed, back-and-forth first round.

Fights

• Alistair Overeem vs. Roman Zentsov
• Alistair Overeem vs. Bazigit Atajev
• Alistair Overeem vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto
• Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Alistair Overeem 1
• Alistair Overeem vs. Igor Vovchanchyn - The fight was in the quarterfinals of the Pride 2005 middleweight grand prix.
• Alistair Overeem vs. Sergei Kharitonov 1 - Sergei Kharitonov dislocated his shoulder badly early in the fight after an awkward fall but fought through it.
• Vitor Belfort vs. Alistair Overeem 2 - The fight was at heavyweight. Overeem came out to "America, Fuck Yeah" from Team America.
• Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 2
• Mauricio Rua vs. Alistair Overeem 2 - The fight was the final Pride fight for both men.
• Alistair Overeem vs. Sergei Kharitonov 2 - The fight was in K-1 HERO'S.
• Mirko Filipovic vs. Alistair Overeem - The fight ended controversially in a no-contest after Mirko Filipovic could not continue due to repeated illegal knees to the groin from Overeem.
• Alistair Overeem vs. Gary Goodridge
• Alistair Overeem vs. Tony Sylvester - The fight was only eight days before Overeem was set to face James Thompson at Dream 12.
• Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers - The fight, in May 2010, was for the Strikeforce heavyweight title with Overeem defending. It was his first defense of the belt which he had won in November 2007. The fight was Brett Rogers' second career defeat, and his second loss in a row, both by knockout.
• Alistair Overeem vs. Todd Duffee - The fight was Todd Duffee's Dream debut. The fight was for the "Dream interim heavyweight title."
• Alistair Overeem vs. Junior Dos Santos
• Alistair Overeem vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Alistair Overeem vs. Walt Harris - The fight had originally been scheduled for earlier in the year but Walt Harris was forced to be replaced by Jairzinho Rozenstruik after the kidnapping and murder of his stepdaughter Aniah Blanchard. The fight was rescheduled even after Alistair Overeem was knocked out by Rozenstruik. Obviously, Harris would be fighting for his stepdaughter and would have the support of many fans who otherwise might not have even known who he was otherwise.
• Alexander Volkov vs. Alistair Overeem