Alistair Overeem Demands His Respect: MMA Fighter Ko's K-1 Heavyweight Star

Heavyweight muscle man Alistair Overem demanded respect on New Years Eve when he fought against former K-1 heavyweight champ Badr Hari and knocked him out in the 1st round.

Earlier in 2008 Alistair Overeem accepted the challenge to fight heavyweight kickboxing star and all around bad boy Badr Hari under K-1 rules.

Hari who had made some very disrespectful remarks earlier in the year at DREAM 6 about mma said, "I came here to see great fights but all I have seen is guys hugging each other. If you want to see some real fights , and some real KO's I'l tell you where to go: K-1!"

Hari whose blind ignorance towards the DREAM promotion had apparently not been aware that it was owned by K-1 and would be hosting a New Years event with DREAM fighters later that year.

Hari went on to stir even more controversy later last year when he stomped downed opponent Remy Bonjansky in the K-1 World GP final 2008. Hari's actions, which were illegal in K-1 rules, cost him to have to forfeit his belt and any sort of prize money he would have received that night.

Overeem, lately with his quest for respect among the mma community was not able to convince the K-1 promoters to get a re-match with Mirko Filipovic, whose testicles where knocked into his stomach in their last fight, but was instead matched to fight Hari instead.

An interesting turn of events indeed, especially since Overeem had told Hari that he would fight him under K-1 kickboxing rules but would later want a re-match in DREAM under mma rules.

It appears however that Overeem will not be needing to redeem himself when he knocked out the kickboxing bad boy out in the first round.

Overeem walked in looking 30lbs heavier than when he fought Filipovic, and looked almost 50lbs heavier than Hari. Overeem had no problem walking through Hari's attack and knocking him down twice before delivering the dangerous combination that would end the night.

Overeem who looked extremely excited danced about the ring, and ended the night by telling the crowd that he did it for the respect of mma fighters.