Celebrate Octobereem: Alistair Overeem v. Errol Parris Video

The UFC can have Brocktober.  Here at HeadKickLegend, we're declaring this month Octobereem.  That's right, we're trading in highly polarizing, muscled up heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar for highly polarizing, muscled up heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.  Join us as we break down the career of our favorite brick wall of a kickboxer and celebrate all things Reem.

To start, let's look back at one of Overeem's few pre- Badr Hari kickboxing matches and his first fight under the K-1 banner.  From the K-1 Holland GP 2001, this is Alistair Overeem v. Errol Parris in the opening round of this GP qualifying tournament. 

Ugly fight here, but an interesting one to watch for Overeem's development.  The biggest thing that jumps out here is that, even back then, Overeem was using many of the same tactics he brought to the table in 2009.  He has a heavy reliance on knees, and uses the clinch to make the fight more of a sloppy brawl than a technical fight.  He would later use this same strategy against Remy Bonjasky.  But here, it's not very effective for a few reasons.  First, Overeem lacks the strength to really bully his opponent, and he is left doing a lot of clinching that results in little more than stalling.  Second, there's no setup for the knees here - he just leaps in and throws them, never taking the time to make sure he can land the shot. 

But Overeem's greatest undoing here is definitely his cardio.  By midway through round 2 he is spent, and it's not a shock that he can not answer the bell for round 3.  Surprising that the leaner, Light Heavyweight Overeem we see here has significant conditioning issues, while the modern day Megareem has gone 3 rounds with Bonjasky and Aerts with little stamina issues. 

Overall, it's not the prettiest fight, and few probably would have walked away predicting Alistair Overeem would be one of the K-1 elite in 2010, but it is definitely a historical piece to revisit, and a good way to kick off Octobereem.

Quick side note: this show also marked the K-1 debut of Remy Bonjasky, who was in a quarter final opposite Overeem.  Like Alistair, Bonjasky's debut was dissapointing, as he dropped a split decision to Jerrel Venetiaan, denying us the chance of seeing Overeem v. Bonjasky 8 years before their 2009 showdown.