Strikeforce Overeem vs. Werdum: Overeem Understands Non-Top 5 Ranking by Critics

Nick CaronJun 15, 2011

Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem returns to the cage for the first time in over a year this Saturday night when he faces Fabricio Werdum in the main event of the Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum fight card.

Though he has not fought in Strikeforce since May 2010 when he defeated fellow Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix fighter Brett Rogers, Overeem has been active over in Japan fighting for both the Dream and K-1 promotions.

“It was not my fault that it took over a year to come back. We tried to put together the fight against Werdum: the winner of the Fedor-Werdum fight,” he explained the situation to MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani. “Werdum was injured, needed surgery on his elbow.”

With Werdum unable to fight, Overeem and his camp looked to fight Fedor.

“Fedor declined to fight me for the second time. At that time, I decided to compete in the K1 [Grand Prix] because there were no fights for me in Strikeforce.

“I don’t know, I can’t say what’s going through their minds, but we tried to put together that fight.”

As he said, Overeem competed in and eventually won the K-1 kickboxing World Grand Prix tournament in December 2010. He also went on to defeat Todd Duffee to win the Dream interim heavyweight championship later that month.

With Zuffa having recently purchased Strikeforce, there has been increasing rumors that Overeem will eventually have to give up on fighting in K-1. But he claims that is not the case. At least not yet.

“My contract states that I can fight in other promotions,” he stated. “Obviously that’s going to be a talking point in the negotiations, but we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

Regardless of the contract situation, though, “The Reem” understands that this tournament is perhaps the most meaningful time in his career. Though his Strikeforce heavyweight championship will not be on the line, he believes that there may actually be added incentive for him in this tournament.

“I like the idea that there’s something new on the line. There is something for me. There’s the GP title,” he explained. “There is room for another belt.”

To become the Strikeforce Grand Prix champion, though, he will need to avenge a loss he previously had when he faces Fabricio Werdum in the first round of the tournament this Saturday night. When asked about the previous fight, which took place in May 2006, Overeem seemed almost unaffected by it.

“It’s one of these fights where you’re not entirely in shape. Or actually in bad shape going into the fight,” he confirmed. “Going into that fight, I just had surgery. The surgery had a big impact on my body, on my conditioning.”

Nevertheless, the champion does want to redeem that loss.

“It was one of those fights that kept nagging me and I’ve been wanting this rematch for a very long time,” he continued. “I think Fabricio has perfected himself to be the best grappler in MMA and I think I’ve perfected myself to be the best striker in MMA.”

But despite being known as one of the best strikers in the sport and holding numerous titles, there are still critics who doubt him as a top five or even top 10 fighter. Though he doesn’t agree with that sentiment, Overeem does understand where his critics are coming from.

“I understand it very well,” he admitted. “You could say Alistair is not top-10 or top-five because he has not fought this guy and that guy, but I think where the fans get their motivation is that I did fight a lot, I did have a lot of knockouts or submissions. I am the only fighter to hold a major MMA belt as well as the K1 organization. Nobody has ever done that before.

“The only way to find out is for those fights to happen. Now that Zuffa has bought Strikeforce, it’s one step closer.”