(Photo courtesy Golden Glory)
Alistair Overeem capped off a perfect 2010 by winning the Fields K-1 Grand Prix over the weekend, and in doing so the Strikeforce heavyweight champion made history by becoming the only fighter to hold the coveted kickboxing title and an MMA championship belt at the same time.
"The Reem," who won two bouts earlier this year to earn a berth in the final defeated a trio of opponents at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo Saturday to win the tournament. Following a quarter-final decision victory over Ernesto Hoost protegee Tyrone Spong, Overeem broke Gokhan Saki’s arm in the semi-finals, forcing his Golden Glory teammate to quit in the first round and went on to knock out Peter Aerts in the final.
Aerts did "The Demolition Man" a favor by knocking perennial tournament favorite Semmy Schilt out of the tournament in the semi finals. According to sources close to Aerts, the Dutch fighter was pissing blood after the fight with Schilt and had to be cleared to fight in the final because a cut he sustained on his eyelid against Schilt was deep and wouldn’t stop bleeding for some time after the match.
What’s interesting is that Golden Glory anticipated that Overeem may have to face Saki at some point in the tournament, and as such, they would not allow the two fighters to spar together or train in the gym at the same time. During their bout, both trainer Cor Hemmers and manager Bas Boon excused themselves from cornering either fighter and told Overeem and Saki that it was up to them to settle things in the ring without them.
Does anyone else get goosebumps when reading this?
These guys are fighters. No excuses. No, "I’ll never fight a teammate," BS; just two competitors doing what their jobs, friendship aside. Some MMA teams *cough….AKA…cough…Team Jackson…cough*… need to take a lesson in Budo from these guys.
If you missed the event, we got you covered with the videos (in order) after the jump.
Aerts vs. Mighty Mo (Quarter Final)
(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
Shilt vs. Kyotaro (Quarter Final)
(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
Overeem vs. Spong (Quarter Final)
(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
Schilt vs. Aerts (Semi Final)
(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
Saki vs. Ghita (Quarter Final) – Part One
(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
Overeem vs. Saki (Semi Final)
(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
Overeem vs. Aerts (Final)(Video courtesy YouTube/Para24karaat)
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comments@danomite: ". . . it's not as impressive as it looks on paper." - I think it is exactly as impressive as it looks on paper. By 'on paper' you are referring to somebody who hasn't seen the fight, some jerk-off who just looks at some billboard that sells The Reem as "THE FIRST MAN TO EVER HOLD TITLES IN MMA AND K1!!!!" So what you're saying is that that guy is getting the wrong impression about The Reem and capturing those titles was A LOT easier than it sounds. I fail to see how horsemeat doesn't fit that bill.
He fought for, and won, the Strikeforce belt AND he fought for, and won, the K1 tournament. If his opponents got more hurt than him in previous bouts, it's because he had a better gameplan or was luckier than them. Or he has too much horse meat on him to be hurt by those tiny humans.
Nice dude. Nice.
Damn my pale skin and backne.
you're right. i don't mean to be sounding like I'm saying any of this is Overeem's fault. It's definitely a hell of an accomplishment, but it's not as impressive as it looks on paper. It's just that I feel cheated by the one-night tournament. Reem vs. Saki and Reem vs. Aerts would have been awesome if they were all healthy. And the chances of getting Reem to fight Saki again are slim given that they're teammates.
Overeem definitely hurt Saki's elbow when he blocked that body kick, but I gotta believe it was already pretty badly hurt before the fight unless someone has a better explanation for why he refused to throw a right hand during the fight. It's not like he didn't have the opportunity to throw it. There were times when Overeem just covered up and Saki still only threw lefts.
Its standard operating procedure for single night tournaments. There isn't less value in it because one or two guysm "threw in the towel" or were previously injured etc. Its just the way she goes. In the fight with Sprong, Overeem got rocked a bit and it was a hard fight for him for all three rounds.
Same with the Saki fight, even though Saki had a busted arm/rib/elbow/itdoesntmatter he managed to drop The Reem with a kick to the head in the early part of the first round.
The likelihood that a single night tournament has fights with fighters in perfect condition, the entire time (incuding not suffering from fatigue) is extremely low. Overeem progressively turned it up as the night went on, paced himself, fought the smart fight, picked his shots, and won. In the later fights in single night tournaments, NOBODY is feeling great. Alistair fought a very smart night of fights though. Definitely got a bit lucky with Aerts taking our Schilt, but man, Saki fuckin WENT FOR IT against him, so call it even.
:)
Saki's ribs were tenderized in his previous bout, but then he appeared to be shielding the ribs with his arm and Overeem broke it. Can't see the above videos on work computer, but if you seen his elbow after the kick her took from Overeem, it sure looked broken...It was swollen all to shit, and after the finals he was in the ring in a sling
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