Alistair Overeem vs. Top 5 UFC Heavyweights: How Does He Stack Up?
Current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is one of the favorites to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament this year. The dominant champion hasn’t lost an MMA fight since 2007 and is 9-0-1 in his last 10 fights. His no-contest came in a fight against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic due to an accidental knee to the groin.
“The Demolition Man” has completely destroyed most of his competition over the past three years, including his most recent dominating victories over Brett Rogers and Todd Duffee.
But just how good Overeem actually is, is up for debate.
Though he has mowed through his competition, the competition he has faced in recent years hasn’t been particularly great. With Brett Rogers being probably the biggest name on the list, many of Overeem’s critics say that he is not on par with the top fighters in the world, particularly those in the UFC.
Before Overeem makes his run at history by attempting to become the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, let’s take a look at how he stacks up against some of the UFC’s top heavyweights.
5. Frank Mir
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Alistair Overeem is the kind of fighter who could really cause some problems for Frank Mir.
Mir is the kind of fighter who loves to stand up and trade with his opponents, even in fights where many believe that he is the lesser-skilled striker. Alistair Overeem has his weaknesses, but striking is not one of them.
As a pure striker, Overeem is among the best heavyweight fighters in the world. His vicious striking has made him a star both in MMA as well as in K-1, where he recently won the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix tournament by winning three fights on Dec. 11, 2010.
Frank Mir was once considered one of the top heavyweight fighters in the world, but his performances as of late have him slipping down the rankings. After being completely crushed by Brock Lesnar in their rematch for the UFC heavyweight championship, Mir bounced back with an impressive victory over perennial top heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Things got rough, though, when he was violently knocked out in his next fight by Shane Carwin. He did defeat Mirko Cro Cop in a snore-fest back in Sept. 2010, but the fire just doesn’t seem to be there for Mir in his past few fights.
With Mir’s chin being a major question mark and Overeem being such a powerful striker, I wouldn’t expect this fight to last very long.
Prediction: Alistair Overeem defeats Frank Mir by knockout, Round 1.
4. Shane Carwin
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Perhaps the strongest puncher in all of mixed martial arts, Shane Carwin would be a very interesting test for the Strikeforce heavyweight champion.
Overeem himself has a questionable chin, having been knocked out a handful of times throughout his career, most of which have come by fighters who are significantly less powerful than Carwin.
That said, if the fight goes past the first round, Alistair Overeem has a significant advantage. While he has only gone to four decisions in his 45-fight MMA career, Overeem would have the cardio advantage over Carwin.
Carwin has been known to gas-out early in fights, most notably when he did so against Brock Lesnar in his last fight, back in July of 2010. Carwin dominated the first round of that fight by most accounts, but was completely out of energy by the time the second round started. Lesnar took advantage by taking him to the ground where he eventually submitted the power-punching Carwin.
Overeem what many would consider to be a submission expert per-say, but he is definitely more skilled in that area than Brock Lesnar.
If the fight were to get out of the first round, expect an early submission from Overeem.
Prediction: Alistair Overeem defeats Shane Carwin by submission, Round 2.
3. Brock Lesnar
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Perhaps the most interesting stylistic matchup that Overeem could have in the UFC would be with the company’s biggest draw: Brock Lesnar.
As a former NCAA Division-I wrestling champion, Lesnar is among the best pure wrestlers the sport has ever seen. His giant frame and incredible strength makes him practically impossible to sprawl on to avoid takedowns.
But where Lesnar generally uses his massive strength advantage, we saw in his fight with Cain Velasquez that when he fights a man who is near his level of strength, he can get flustered and make mistakes. Velasquez eventually got on top of Lesnar on the ground and completely hammered away at him until the referees mercifully put an end to the bout with less than a minute left in the first round.
Overeem has come a long way with his physique since moving to the heavyweight division which has led many people to believe that he has done so unnaturally. Overeem now weighs in about at the 265-pound weight limit for his fights and is a muscular freak similar to Lesnar both in body structure, height and weight.
As evidenced by the way he threw Brett Rogers around, Overeem is not going to get pushed around by even some of the strongest fighters in the world. If Lesnar can’t take him down, he’s going to have a lot of trouble.
Prediction: Alistair Overeem defeats Brock Lesnar by knockout, Round 1.
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2. Junior Dos Santos
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The first of two undefeated-in-the-UFC heavyweights on this list, Junior Dos Santos is generally ranked as either the second- or third-best heavyweight in the UFC. At just 26 years old, Dos Santos is not the most experienced fighter but he has already proven himself to be one of the best fighters on the planet.
In just six fights in the UFC, Dos Santos has defeated some of the top fighters in the company including consensus top heavyweight and Overeem’s first-round tournament opponent Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Gabriel Gonzaga and Roy Nelson.
With the exception of Roy Nelson in his last fight who put up a tremendous effort, Dos Santos has finished each of his UFC fights by way of his impressive punching skills.
These two men are very comparable in skills, with both men preferring to keep things standing if possible. This would likely be the most exciting fight that Overeem could have in the UFC. We'd likely see some good combinations by both men early with neither really taking a decisive lead in the fight.
I'd expect, though, that Dos Santos would be the one who sticks more tightly to his game plan and doesn't get nervous as the clock winds down. Overeem may make a mistake which could leave an opportunity for Dos Santos to finish the fight late.
Prediction: Junior Dos Santos defeats Alistair Overeem by knockout, Round 3.
1. Cain Velasquez
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The UFC heavyweight champion is the only man on this list who has never been defeated. Cain Velasquez has taken the mixed martial arts world by storm as he has crushed some of the top fighters in the UFC.
Jake O’Brien, Ben Rothwell, Cheick Kongo and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are among the names that have all fallen victim to Velasquez since his UFC debut back in April of 2008. But it was Velasquez’s last fight against Brock Lesnar that officially put the world on notice that there was a new top heavyweight fighter.
Velasquez, considered the underdog going into the fight against the former WWE star who outweighed him by over 20 pounds, shocked the MMA community by completely manhandling Lesnar. Using his powerful grappling skills and fierce ground-and-pound, Velasquez won the fight at 4:12 of the first round, becoming the UFC heavyweight champion in the process.
Though he has only fought in nine professional MMA fights, Velasquez is currently ranked as the No. 1 heavyweight in the world by most publications—a place that Alistair Overeem hopes to be in the very near future by winning the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
It’s hard to truly pick out a weak point in Velasquez’s game as he hasn’t really been in trouble in any of his fights.
There was talk by some experts that Velasquez didn’t have very powerful striking on his feet, but that was put to rest during his fight with Nogueira. After landing quite a few combinations early in the first round, Velasquez really appeared to be frustrating the much more experienced Nogueira who couldn’t seem to land any big shots.
When Nogueira went for a combination of his own, Velasquez counter-punched, catching the MMA legend with a powerful right hook to the jaw that sent him to the ground in a heap. It was all over from there as Velasquez pounded his lifeless body with a few more punches before the referee called an end to the bout. This was particularly impressive because Nogueira has only ever been knocked out twice in his 40-fight MMA career that spans back to 1999.
A tremendous wrestler and apparently very powerful striker, Velasquez poses quite a few problems for Overeem who would likely try to keep the fight on the feet. If he does keep it on the feet, he’s going to have to watch out for the big punches, but he’s also going to have to be careful that he doesn’t get too comfortable and get taken to the ground.
In this champion vs. champion fight, it’s hard to truly pick a spot where Overeem has an advantage. We really haven’t seen Velasquez have to work off his back before and we haven’t seen him take a truly big shot from an opponent yet so there’s always the chance that he could be weak in those areas—but none of that is guaranteed.
At this point, it’s hard to pick against Velasquez until we see an area of his game where he really has a glaring hole.
Prediction: Cain Velasquez defeats Alistair Overeem by Unanimous Decision.
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