Strikeforce: 5 Reasons Why Overeem Will Be No. 1 HW in MMA with Tournament Win

With the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix kicking off tonight, current Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem will be watching to see a glimpse of the men he may face if they end up winning the tournament.

A lot of fans and experts alike are beginning to come to the realization that the winner of this very important tournament may actually have a chance to be the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in all of MMA. Of course, Overeem himself will also be competing in the tournament, which is said to be a No. 1 contender tournament of sorts to determine who will face Overeem for the title.

But at the moment, there is debate among the MMA community on who is even the No. 1 heavyweight in Strikeforce.

Is it Fedor Emelianenko, who has a legendary track record that speaks for itself, including being ranked the top heavyweight in the world for nearly a decade?

Is it Fabricio Werdum who actually defeated Fedor in his last fight?

Or is it Alistair Overeem, who holds the Strikeforce heavyweight title but hasn’t yet faced much top competition in the heavyweight division?

The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix will help answer this question but if one of these top guys wins it, it may also help them move atop the world rankings as the No. 1 heavyweight fighter in all of MMA.

Let’s take a closer look at why the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Alistair Overeem, will be the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in the world if he wins the Grand Prix tournament.

5. Hasn’t Lost in Over Three Years

With the majority of the world’s top heavyweights having beaten one another back, only a few men have remained spotless on their records over the past few years—one of those men is “The Demolition Man,” Alistair Overeem.

This heavyweight has put on a huge amount of muscle mass recently prompting many to believe that he may be on some sort of steroid or human growth hormone. But as long as he passes his drug tests, it’s hard to really say that he isn’t playing fair.

While he has bulked up, Overeem has completely destroyed his competition. With crushing victories over Mark Hunt, Kazuyuki Fujita, Brett Rogers, and Todd Duffee; Overeem has gone 9-0-1 in his last 10 fights with his only blemish coming in the form of a no-contest against Mirko “Cro Cop” due to a knee to the groin.

It’s not just that he has won fights, though—it’s how he has won them. Overeem hasn’t even gone out of the first round since his 2007 fight with Paul Buentello. Whether it has been by knockout or submission, Alistair has proven himself to be a dominant, fight-finishing machine.

4. Champion in Three Organizations at Once

Alistair Overeem won the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship back in Nov. 2007 when he defeated Paul Buentello to win the then-vacant title. But not only is Overeem the Heavyweight Champion in Strikeforce, he is also the DREAM Heavyweight Champion and the K-1 WGP Champion.

These accomplishments put Overeem on another level when talking about mixed martial artists.

It’s hard enough for fighters to get their bodies into shape to fight a couple times a year in MMA, but Overeem is not only doing that, he is also fighting regularly in K-1.

Overeem’s striking is on par with almost any heavyweight in the world and his championships in these numerous organizations really helps to make his case as the world’s No. 1 ranked heavyweight.

3. Cain Velasquez Is on the Sidelines

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LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 24: UFC fighter Cain Velasquez poses after his victory over UFC fighter Ben Rothwell (not pictured) in their Heavyweight bout at UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun at Staples Center on October 24, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Vela

The UFC’s No. 1 ranked heavyweight, Cain Velasquez, is currently watching from home as he recovers from injury

Velasquez earned his No. 1 spot when he defeated then-top-heavyweight Brock Lesnar in October, knocking out the former NCAA Division I Championship wrestler in the first round of their UFC Heavyweight Championship bout.

Shortly after the fight, it was announced that Velasquez had suffered a torn rotator cuff that would require surgery and keep him out for 6-8 months. Velasquez had the surgery and it supposedly went very well, with Velasquez back in the gym already. He’s hoping for a return to MMA as early as fall 2011.

If Velasquez does have his next fight in the fall, that will mean that he has been out for nearly a year—and that’s if Lesnar or Dos Santos is ready to fight at that time.

History tells us that MMA rankings generally look unfavorably upon fighters who miss a lot of time, even if they are the champion of a given organization.

Fedor Emelianenko has been a casualty to this concept before, as he has fallen from the pound-for-pound rankings on a lot of websites without losing any fights, but having not competed often enough to maintain his position.

2. Will Have to Defeat Fabricio Werdum

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LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 01: Mixed martial artist Fabricio Werdum arrives at the third annual Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards 2010 at the Palms Casino Resort December 1, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

If Alistair Overeem wins this tournament, he will have to go through Fabricio Werdum.

Currently ranked No. 3 on the Sherdog.com rankings, Werdum has defeated a who’s who of heavyweight fighters including Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Brandon Vera, Gabriel Gonzaga (twice), Aleksander Emelianenko and most recently Fedor Emelianenko.

Werdum also defeated Overeem himself back in May 2006 in Pride when he defeated the “Demolition Man” by submission with a kimura in the second round.

A win over Werdum would be Overeem’s biggest of his career at heavyweight and would catapult him up the rankings even before the semi-final round begins.

1. May Have to Go Through Fedor

Will it be Antonio Silva or Fedor Emelianenko advancing to the second round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament? We’ll know in a few hours.

While Antonio Silva would still certainly be respectable competition for the winner of Werdum vs. Overeem, there is no doubt that Strikeforce is hoping that Emelianenko walks out the winner in tonight’s fight.

Fedor is the king of the heavyweight division even if he is ranked outside the top-3 for the first time in years. It really only takes one look at the stock of Fabricio Werdum to realize what defeating Fedor would do for Alistair Overeem’s credibility.

Werdum was only a borderline top-10 heavyweight going into his June 2010 fight with Emelianenko. But with one triangle choke and a couple taps of Fedor’s hand, Werdum shot up to the top-five of almost all rankings lists.

With Overeem already a solidified top-10 heavyweight, a victory over Fedor would certainly give him the kind of push he needs to make a claim as the world’s top heavyweight—and he would still have another fight to go before he added the Heavyweight Grand Prix championship to his list of accomplishments.

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