Octobereem: How Alistair Overeem Conquered the World in Three Years

I finally got some down time and was catching up on the last few episodes of "The Reem" and stopped to think about just how big of a following Alistair Overeem has gained over the past few years. Alistair Overeem went from one of the fighters in PRIDE that was notable but not mentioned in the same breath of fighers like Cro Cop, Fedor Emilianenko, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Kazushi Sakuraba. It is partially because Overeem was still developing when all of those fighters were in their primes dominating PRIDE, and partially because at the time, Overeem was less-than-impressive at Middleweight (Light Heavyweight elsewhere). It has been discussed to death that Overeem was making a crazy weight cut and was unable to do any sort of weight training which might bulk him up.

The decision to bulk up to Heavyweight has taken his career and shot it into the stellarsphere. Overeem dipped his toe into the Heavyweight world first in 2006, with moderate success, but he still moved between Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight. Finally he decided in 2007 to commit to being a Heavyweight full time and when Paul Buentello taps out due to knee strikes in Strikeforce you can see the momentum in Alistair Overeem's career finally begin to move in not only a positive direction, but a turbo-bolstered rocket is strapped to his back to bring him there.

If you look through his wins at Heavyweight, you'd be hard-pressed to be blown away from the level of competition. This has been, to this day, the main criticism launched against Overeem. Since his move to Heavyweight, his most impressive wins are over Paul Buentello and Brett Rogers, both in Strikeforce for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title. His bout against Mirko Cro Cop was a dominating affair until an unintentional low blow rendered Mirko unable to continue and the fight was ruled a no contest.

Where Overeem has really began to show his polish has been in K-1 competition. FEG knew early on that they had an absolute ace in Alistair Overeem for DREAM and pushed for him to fight K-1 badboy Badr Hari. They each challenged each other publicly, with a verbal agreement to fight each other. Overeem had assumed that it was going to be in DREAM and much to his surprise, when FEG contacted him to fight Badr Hari, it was in K-1 rules at Dynamite!! 2008. Alistair had not stepped into a K-1 ring since 2004 where he was knocked out by Glaube Feitosa. Upon entering into his fight with Badr Hari, Alistair was 2-2 in kickboxing competition. To say he seemed outmatched was an understatement.

The moment Overeem's hand connected on Badr Hari's jaw was the exact moment where you can pinpoint his career taking off. Badr Hari isn't known to be unbeatable by any means, as he is an emotional fighter who has been knocked down and out before, but in the world of K-1 there were no better outside of Schilt and Bonjasky at the time. The kickboxing world was in shock, and the shock continued on to when Overeem squared off with K-1 World Grand Prix Champion Remy Bonjasky in 2009 and was manhandling Bonjasky, able to trip and block most of his strikes. Bonjasky was able to pull off the decision win, in a decision that Overeem and his camp still discuss as a "stolen" victory to this day. It was enough to show that the win over Badr Hari was anything but a fluke, that Alistair Overeem is for real and his stand up is world class.

Overeem entered into the World Grand Prix following this, being voted in by the fans in their annual poll as a wildcare in the tournament. Overeem then took the fight to Peter Aerts in Seoul for the Final 16, knocking Aerts out of his first K-1 World Grand Prix in history. In the Final 8 Overeem crushed Ewerton Teixeira with a knee that left him out cold. He was then on a collision course with Badr Hari while both men were looking unstoppable. Overeem made a brief mistake against Hari and got caught, being knocked down. He pulled himself up and continue to bring it to Badr, but Badr was a man on fire, as he scored a high kick that sent Overeem stumbling into the ropes, where the ref called it a down and ruled the fight over. Staunch Alistair Overeem supporters will argue that it was a bad call, but many concede that the ref was looking out for Overeem's best interests in stopping the fight.

We are now entering into World Grand Prix season again, with Overeem holding two K-1 wins this year, one over Ben Edwards in the Final 16 which qualifies him for the Final 8. Overeem will enter into the Final 8 taking on a much smaller Tyrone Spong. This year Overeem also defended his Strikeforce Heavyweight title against Brett Rogers and is lined up to defend the belt against Fabricio Werdum in 2011. Through all of this, Alistair Overeem's name has become cemented in the industry, with him always being a hot topic when it comes to rankings in both K-1 and MMA. The online documentary series, "The Reem" has always helped to raise his profile by keeping his name in the public's view and showing a more human side to a vicious and talented fighter.

It is almost unreal how Overeem went from a struggling Light Heavyweight MMA fighter to one of the elite Heavyweights in the world in just a matter of years, and how his popularity has skyrocketed, also bringing the Golden Glory name with him. Many still doubt him, but as he continues to fight the top in the division in MMA, he will be able to prove what he is made of once and for all.