Overeem, the last quest of a fighting life (s)

When he first fought in MMA, France had been world soccer champions for simply over a 12 months. We’re not speaking about 2018, eh, however 1998. More than twenty years after its debut, Alistair Overeem continues to make the powder communicate along with his fists, his ft and his knees. With one last quest in the sights from the high of his forty springs: conquer the heavyweight belt of UFC, which has all the time eluded him till then.

“As Dana White stated, it is a younger males’s sport. Even although I nonetheless love this sport and all the pieces that goes with it, that I nonetheless love to coach, I additionally need to be practical: my time is coming to an finish, admits the Dutchman born in England in a video printed by the UFC. I need to make this last run as a result of I imagine that it’s my future to hunt this UFC title. The time has come. “

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If you do not know his title, allow us to do the introductions: Alistair Overeem is an MMA legend. And the phrase just isn’t overused. Sixty-six fights on the clock (47-18, 1 No Contest) and titles in shambles. Introduced to fight sports activities as a teenager by his older brother, a skilled fighter Valentijn, who took him to the Chris Dolman coach room to show him defend himself (he hated it at first), “The Demolition Man “began his profession in kickboxing in 1997, earlier than a first professional MMA combat in October 1999. Since then he has fought virtually in every single place, from the legendary PRIDE in Japan – he wished to” follow in the footsteps “of Valentijn who fought there when he was “fifteen-sixteen” – from UFC juggernaut to Strikeforce or DREAM.

The listing of fighters fallen below his blows reads like a who’s who of some of the greatest names in historical past: Fabricio Werdum, Vitor Belfort and Mark Hunt, all three crushed twice, but in addition former UFC champions Andrei Arlovski, Junior Dos Santos, Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar, the man who “motivated him to join the UFC” in 2011. He was headlining the UFC premiere at his dwelling in the Netherlands, in May 2016, for his victory over Arlovski. He received heavyweight belts at Strikeforce and DREAM. Trained at the Dutch faculty of muay-thai, well-known for having formed many nice champions of the self-discipline, he additionally received the Ok-1 World Grand Prix in 2010.

Full baggage

Enough to turn out to be one of the solely two fighters in historical past to win a world title in MMA and Ok-1 and the just one to have held three belts concurrently in these disciplines (Strikeforce, DREAM and Ok-1). All with a background that makes him one of the most full heavyweights in historical past, in a position to end fights on KO / TKO (25) or submission (17), extremely harmful along with his knee strikes / kicks Kick to the physique and his fists but in addition along with his “guillotine” with which he had crushed everybody to win in his class at the 2005 European “grappling submission” championship ADCC.

On the highway, he has of course skilled a few pilings, a number of defeats towards different legends (Chuck Liddell, Fabricio Werdum, Mauricio Rua twice and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira twice too) and even a KO remained in the legend inflicted by the overpowered Francis Ngannou in December 2017, nevertheless it’s unattainable to not dwell with such a journey.

He did all the pieces, what, besides one factor: to turn out to be the UFC heavyweight champion. Yet he had his probability. In 2012, after his victory over Lesnar, he needed to face the Junior champion Dos Santos – whom he would beat three years later – however examined constructive (testosterone / epitestosterone ratio at 14/1 towards a permitted restrict of 6/1) a few weeks earlier than and should say goodbye to fight. With three defeats in his subsequent 4 fights, the challenger place recedes however a collection of 4 successes punctuated by Arlovski in Rotterdam offers him the proper to face the new champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 203 in September 2016. Si the Dutchman manages to place the American on the floor due to his left, Miocic recovers rapidly and concludes the take care of a knockout in the last minute of the first spherical. His luck has handed.

“No real pressure”

We haven’t given him one other since as a result of he has by no means chained greater than two victories. But this time, he desires to imagine it. After two successes over Walt Harris and Augusto Sakai in May and September 2020, every time on TKO, Overeem rose to fifth place in the UFC heavyweight standings and may chain a third victory in a row this Saturday evening towards Russian Alexander ” Drago “Volkov, former Bellator and M-1 champion and sixth in the similar classification. Considering the oppositions to return in the class in the coming weeks, with Gane-Rozenstruik, Blaydes-Lewis and Miocic-Ngannou for the belt, such a success would put him in the proper automobile. This wouldn’t assure a new combat for the title, as a result of there are individuals at the gate (we don’t neglect Jon Jones who goes as much as the heavyweights), and he himself admits not understanding what number of extra victories could be mandatory. to get it. But it could be a little nearer.

Conversely, a defeat would put an finish to this last dream and will make him take into consideration retirement. Did you say stress? As a smart outdated man of MMA, he prefers to dismiss it. “I take pleasure in the fight and everything around it so there is no real pressure, he launched this Thursday at a press conference. There is always a little bit of it, of course, but I’m taking the moment because I know it doesn’t help improve performance. We will fight on Saturday and we will see what happens afterwards. “The particular person involved is aware of it effectively, the twilight of his profession is approaching:” I already have moments when I look back and I wonder how I could have done all that. I hope I made people smile, and sometimes made them cry. Looking at it all, it’s been a crazy adventure. “With all the pieces he is executed, we’d like to see it finish with one last combat for a belt. The UFC belt. He deserved it.