UFC 141: Will Casual Fan Ever Accept Alistair Overeem?

At UFC 141, we saw the changing of the guard at the apogee of the heavyweight assemblage. The No. 1 contenders tag now belongs to Alistair Overeem following his brutal decimation of Brock Lesnar, which ultimately sent him into early retirement. 

The Demolition Man’s clinic on Lesnar will be highly appreciated by the hardcore section of MMA fans, and I believe the casual fans will follow suit as well.

The problem with casual fans is that they are just that: casual.

Every one of us is a casual fan to a certain degree—we follow the sports that intrigue us the most, and the ones that don’t we tend to show only a fleeting interest, until maybe something catches our eye and we’re like "Wow!" And nine times out of 10 we’re hooked.

Apropos “The Reem,” he has that gigantean imposing presence, the poster bad-boy looks, the Scarface-like scar on his cheek and to boot, he can hit like a freight train.

The aforementioned attributes are some of the reasons the casual fan will accept Overeem.

The manner in which he demolished Lesnar via first-round TKO will no doubt propel him into the media’s stratosphere like never before.

In comparison to Strikeforce, K-1 and Dream, the UFC is akin to the Super Bowl vis-à-vis recognition.

And “The Reem” will garner that publicity on a grand scale.

Overeem is next slated to throwdown with another stand-up heavy-hitter—a Brazilian in the guise of UFC heavyweight champion Junior “Cigano” dos Santos—sometime in 2012.

If he can cross that bridge in emphatic fashion, his affiliation with the casual contingent will sky rocket even more so than some of the existing upper-echelon fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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