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Alistair Overeem: I didn’t fight in Strikeforce the last couple of years because there were no opponents for me to fight
By Zach Arnold | May 14, 2010
Every time I listen to an interview of his, including this new one with MMAFighting.com, I find him to be one of the more unique talkers in Mixed Martial Arts. He doesn’t care what you think about what he says — he just says what is on his mind without screaming. He manages to anger so many people and gets paid to fight. Life is pretty good for him right now.
“I’m feeling good. I’m feeling excited to fight in the States again. I’m fired up. Preparation went really well. I’m ready to go. I’m ready to show great technique and ready to show a great fight.”
And with that, here’s some quotes from his MMAFighting.com interview:
Do you prepare differently for fights when you are fighting in America versus in other countries?
“No, actually not. Nah, not really, you focus on yourself, you focus on the conditioning and sparring and all the usual stuff that everybody does, I guess. And yeah, it’s not really different. This is going to be in a cage. In Europe or Japan it’s in the ring, but it’s not very different.”
How has Strikeforce changed since the last time you fought for the promotion? It certainly has become much bigger.
“Yes I have because when I won the title there was nobody else for me to fight then because the Heavyweight division was scattered over Affliction, UFC, Elite, and now there’s a lot of more guys for me to fight so that’s why I’m fighting here again and that’s why you can expect to see a lot of more this year.”
“Definitely.”
There are lots of new MMA fans who will see you for the first time or will be seeing you for the first time in the States. Why didn’t you fight in the States for the last 2-3 years?
“It’s a combination of factors. It was not a choice, but like I said when I won the title there was no other opponents for me in Strikeforce. I beat the strongest guy in Strikeforce and that was Paul Buentello at the time. The Heavyweigh division was scattered, well after Affliction and Elite bankrupt Strikeforce got bigger and now they got the Showtime deal and the contracts of some Heavyweight fighters so there was some more fights for me. When I won the title, there were no other fights for me so I spoke with Scott, Scott Coker the President and he allowed me as the champion to fight in Japan, in DREAM and in K-1 where there were fights. Of course, I’m a fighter, I have to make a living, yeah, I want to make money so you go where the fights are. That’s basically what happened and now because there are more fights I’ll be fighting here more.”
Brett Rogers has said some bad things about and takes it personally that you have held up the Strikeforce heavyweight division by not fighting in America. What are your thoughts about Brett Rogers?
“You know, for me, it’s just a body, I have no opinion of him, he’s a strong guy, he comes in there with a lot of fights, 10 wins and 1 loss to Fedor. I have no opinion about him, I don’t know him personally, but this Saturday he’s going to go down. That’s one thing I know for sure.”
Do you expect this fight to be a stand-up war or to go to the ground? Brett Rogers has been doing some wrestling training recently.
“I’m open for anything. I train for anything, I’m ready for anything.”
“Well, you know, I had this gut feeling I knew he was not going to stand with me, but like I said, I’m ready for anything.”
There was a Youtube video clip of you eating horse meat in a kitchen. How did you discover eating horse meat?
“Well, that’s a funny thing, because I just recently found out that horse meat is illegal in the States. I heard that in America they don’t eat horse, but in Holland you can eat horse and for me it’s a good protein, better than beef, but I think that the Youtube clip you are referring to I was eating beef. Yeah, I eat beef and a lot of chicken also, and a lot of fish also.”
“A horse is a little bit more expensive than beef. You can just buy it, but it’s more expensive.”
Do you have a message for your critics and doubters?
“You know, I don’t really pat attention to other people, what they say, I’m just focused on myself, and you know that already takes all of my attention. You have to take care of all your sparring partners, your organization, your trainers, all these meetings, your diet guy, thinking about the techniques at your gym, your accountant, buying a house, selling a house, a new kitchen needs to be installed, whatever, I have all this stuff, I don’t have time to worry about what other people think.”
Do you feel you have anything to prove on Saturday night to the critics, to the fans, to Dana White?
“You know, I’m just going to have a good time. I’m going to beat up a big guy who has a big mouth and I’m going to have fun doing that and apart from that, I’m going to get paid for doing it and after that I have some nice trips coming up, coming up to New York, going to Dubai, and that’s basically that.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
> This is going to be in a cage. In Europe or Japan it’s in the ring, but it’s not very different.
A lot of fighters have made comments like this. The common denominator is that they are not wrestlers and they don’t do GnP.
I favor Alister to win because he should be able to outsmart the American in every aspect of the fight. But I would not underestimate the punching power of a black American dude.
The Overeem hype is comical. Still shows that if you win a bunch of meaningless fights in Japan, some fans will still pump you up.
Overeem is a failed Light Heavyweight. He was getting KO’d by smaller Light Heavyweights like Shogun. Wait until his chin is tested against the bigger guys. I’m not sure Rogers is the guy to do it. The verdict is still out whether it was a fluke win over Arlovski or not. This fight should answer a lot of questions for him.
And in a few released pics by Strikeforce, Overeem did look slightly smaller then he did in his last few K-1/DREAM fights.
I started to reply to this post then I realized it was 45 Huddle that wrote it. not worth the time.
Yet you did, in fact, reply to it.
45 Huddle,
I am not sure who is hyping up Overeem as you suggest. I know I do not look at him as an elite heavyweight.I guess he has the potential to be, but he has to fight MMA more often against higher opposition.
BE’s consensus rankings having him at #9 in the world. So obviously websites are pushing him as a a proven Top Tier Heavyweight. The guys best win in the last 3 years is against Paul Buentello. That means he shouldn’t even be in the top 10 discussion.
Considering the state of the heavyweight division as a whole, is #9 really that ludicrous a ranking? Who is there in the UFC that you would rank above him at that weight that isn’t coming off a blowout loss?
Whether a fighter is coming off a loss has nothing to do with Overeem’s ranking.
Overeem’s biggest win at Heavyweight was against Sergei Kharitonov in February 2006 (had to look that one up). Since then he went back to Light Heavyweight for a while and since his return to Heavyweight, his biggest win was against Paul Buentello.
So I would rank him around the other people who have beaten Paul Buentello….. Cheick Kongo and Stevan Struve. There is no way he can be ranked higher for not achieving anything in the division. This idea that a random fighter can magically move up the ranks with no big wins is stupid. If that was the case, then I could pick any random fighter with a win streak and push him into the top 10.
People feel this need to justify future Fedor challengers as being worthy. So they push them up into their top 10’s without any rational reason for it. Andrei Arlovski was pushed to #2 in the world after beating Rothwell and Nelson. More of the same really….
The Top 10 fighters in the world are:
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Shane Carwin
4. Cain Velasquez
5. Frank Mir
6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
7. Junior Dos Santos
8. Brett Rogers
9. Andrei Arlovski
10. Fabricio Werdum
And my Top 10 isn’t perfect. There is rumor for people to move fighters around in it that are perfectly justified. But it’s pretty much the Top 10 guys who belong there.
And if all of that is too hard to understand for some people…. I will make it very simply… You wouldn’t put Cheick Kongo in the Top 10 for beating Paul Buentello…. You wouldn’t put Stevan Struve in the Top 10 for beating Paul Buentello…. Then why are you doing the same for Alistair Overeem? You wouldn’t….
Shane Carwin, Junior Dos Santos, Cain Velazquez, Brock Lesnar. I’m only counting guys NOT coming off losses. Personally I have no problem with Overeem being top 15, maybe no higher than ten or so. But if he does beat Brett Rogers (which he probably will) then he will absolutely be a top ten guy. Maybe only at six or seven, but top ten nonetheless.
But if he wins you’d have to slot him at #8, which is higher than he’s currently ranked…yet this is some monstrous tragedy?
He’s not an elite heavyweight.
He’s not even an elite fighter at all.
Apparently he got a few wins in over a serially under achieving vitor who has never been a reliable measure of an opponents ability… probably ever even circa 96-97.
Lol @ repeatedly glomming onto MMAfightin.com as a supporting reference!!!
The writers at that site are arguable, but reading the aol comments seems to undermine any legitimacy your shooting for!!!
Blech!!
My whole point of contention with 45’s indignation over this is that, okay, maybe put Struve/Kongo/Nelson above him in the top 10…and that still puts him around #11 or #12. And if he beats Rogers, that should definitely cement him a place in the top 10, no?
You’re acting as though this is the equivalent of Aoki at #2 in the LW rankings or something. Being ranked 3-4 spots higher than actuality is hardly some grave injustice perpetrated by an anti-Zuffa conspiracy in the online MMA blogosphere. IMO, it’s not much different than the recent stance posted on here that Jon Jones should be considered a serious contender for the Light Heavyweight title. It’s a ranking based off of potential more than actual results, I’m not disputing as much.
I think a fair compromise over this torrent of opinionz 4 u would be to wait for the results of Saturday night’s fights. Then, if Overeem does gets smoked, feel free to throw a tantrum over a random list of 10 names sorted according to an incredibly subjective evaluation of talent and results posted on the Internet.
Really, Struve?