(Video courtesy Vimeo/TheReem)

Our favorite web documentary series, The Reem, is back with another episode to help you waste a bit of your Friday.

In the latest offering of the show, which chronicles Alistair Overeem’s fighting career, training and personal life, we follow "The Demolition Man" to Thailand where he prepares for his upcoming K-1 bout tomorrow night.

(Video courtesy MMAWeekly)

During a media scrum ahead of his UFC 119 bout with Frank Mir, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic was asked about his career, his future in MMA and whether or not chasing a title is in his plans.

When asked where he sees himself in the UFC’s heavyweight division, Cro Cop danced around the question like a politician.

"I see myself only Saturday night in front of Frank Mir. That’s where I can see myself so far."

(“How’s taste my deteriorating hand speed and growing proclivity for getting knocked out cold?” PicProps: UrDirt)

At this stage in Andrei Arlovski’s career, brainstorming new and interesting ways to get punched really hard in the face sounds (at least to me) like a fairly questionable move. Given that two of Arlovski’s last three MMA fights and three of his last five losses have ended with him taking unscheduled naps in the middle of the ring, conventional wisdom tells us a punch-and-kick only contest would be the last thing the former UFC champ would want to get involved in. Nonetheless, Arlovski is rumored to be booked to make his K-1 kickboxing debut on Oct. 2 in Seoul, Korea, at least according to something Michael Schiavello shouted (then tweeted) during Friday night’s King of the Cage broadcast.

(Video courtesy Vimeo/TheReem)

Our favorite online MMA biography series, The Reem, is back after a two-month hiatus and the latest offering proves it was well worth the wait.

In this episode, Alistair explains how he got into mixed martial arts and talks about the early days of his career when promoters couldn’t find an opponent in Holland to face him.

He also details his fights with PRIDE and the behind the scenes things that were going on his life that contributed to the series of losses he dropped, which is interesting to hear his account of, but it’s during this portion that you realize just how slick the production of these videos really is.

One story I had never heard before that "Demolition Man" tells in this segment is how he came to fight in K-1 on a whim against Badr Hari to shut up the Dutch-born Moroccan who had been incessantly dogging him to face him in a kickboxing match.

Regretfully, there is no mention of horsemeat or Fedor ducking him this time around, but there’s always episode 7.

(Photo courtesy of k-1.co.jp/en)

We probably won’t see Alistair Overeem compete again in Strikeforce until Fabricio Werdum recovers from his elbow injury — but the man’s gotta make a living somehow. K-1 confirmed yesterday that Overeem would be part of the K-1 World GP 2010 championship tournament, which kicks off October 3rd in Seoul with the Final 16 round. The Demolition Man’s opponent will be Ben "The Guvner" Edwards, a 25-year-old Bulldog Gym product who’s been building a fierce reputation in Australia. In July, Edwards won the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Canberra by scoring three consecutive first-round knockouts, with a total fight time of just 3:28. It was the fastest tournament win in K-1 history, smashing Jerome LeBanner’s previous record of 4:04, which LeBanner posted in Osaka nine years ago. Will Edwards make his name off an upset of Overeem? Check out some videos of the Guvner in action after the jump and let us know what you think…

 
(Who the hell is this guy? I thought you said Mark Hunt was coming here.)

Former PRIDE and K-1 star Mark Hunt is taking his last kick at the can of his mixed martial arts career seriously as evidenced by the photo above. Not only has he transformed his body from its rotund former self, he has also joined American Top Team, where he will spend the last month of his training camp preparing for his September 25 UFC debut opposite former fellow super heavyweight, Sean McCorkle at UFC 119 in Indianapolis.

Hunt’s critics have always pointed to his lack of conditioning and the fact that he didn’t train with a top-tier team in his native New Zealand as the reasons why he never got past his role as gatekeeper in PRIDE. Even fights that Hunt was winning, he always seemed to find a way to lose, usually as a result of his lack of cardio or his lack of a ground game.

(Fight Fedor? He’s got a thing that night. PicProps: K-1)

After months of Alistair Overeem publicly blaming M-1 Global for keeping him from fighting Fedor Emelianenko, the “Last Emperor” finally came out this week and said he would fight Overeem by the end of the year. Great news, right? Well, it would be, except that Overeem now says he doesn’t want to fight Fedor. At least not until the former consensus No.1-ranked heavyweight gets back on the winning track. Instead, Overeem says he’ll compete in K-1′s 2010 Grand Prix, which could keep him tied up from October to December.

That faint crashing sound you just heard was us throwing our favorite coffee mug – the “I Love Iowa” one we got in grad school – against the wall.

(I have to admit, I was skeptical when FEG announced their business plan using a map with a spaceship on it that would shuttle fighters to events around the world.)

Ever since news of DREAM stiffing a number of fighters of their contracted fight purses including Gary Goodridge, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and featherweight champ Bibiano Fernandes, rumors have been running rampant about how dire of financial difficulty the Japanese promotion is in.

Nightmare of Battle does a great job in summing up exactly what the issues have been for FEG that have led to the company being barely able to keep its head above water.

(Eat up Mr. Feathers. I chewed up these worms and grubs special for you.)

From the time he first began knocking out anyone who was foolish enough to stare across a boxing ring at him, Mike Tyson has been one of the most polarizing fighters in professional sports.

From his highly publicized problematic personal life that included a stint in prison for a rape he still contends never took place to his falling out with promoter Don King and his business managers who he says all robbed him blind, Tyson walked a thin, yet precarious line of contradiction between the seemingly invincible, cold, calculated killer in the ring and the frail, emotional and mental midget outside of it.

If you were a fan of boxing in the 90s, you were more than likely a fan of Tyson. Pound for pound, many feel he was the best fighter who ever competed. He was the "Anderson Silva" or the "Fedor Emelianenko" of boxing long before either fighter ever competed in a cage or ring.

In recent years, the former champ who was purportedly once worth more than $300 million has suffered a lifetime’s worth of tragedy and tribulation, claiming bankruptcy in 2003 and tragically losing his four-year-old daughter in 2009.

(“Absolutely 100 percent not guilty, your honor.” PicPros: FightMag.net)

Prepare to have everything you thought you knew about Badr Hari shaken to its very foundation: As it turns out, the K-1 kickboxing bad boy just maybe, possibly, allegedly did have a hand in a February assault that left a nightclub bouncer with a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, and the impending possibility of a metal plate in his head.

In the immediate wake of the incident outside an Amsterdam bar, Hari said through his attorney that he "’denied having anything to do with (it)’ and said that if the police did have any evidence, they should summon him." Well, consider that bluff summarily called this week as Amsterdam police did in fact summon Hari along with three other men for questioning regarding the assault. Only problem was, Hari himself was nowhere to be found and the latest report from Headkick Legend indicated that a midweek deadline for the fighter to turn himself in to authorities came and went without the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder showing his face.

If you didn’t stay up until 4 a.m. to watch some K-1 action on Saturday, then you missed the chance to see Alistair Overeem face off against yet another overmatched opponent. Dzevad Poturak turned out to have no real weapons to threaten Overeem with, and after getting dropped with a right hand early on he never got his legs back under him. Watching him sling harmless punches in the general direction of Overeem’s guard and then eat counter-punches for his trouble, you get the sense that this isn’t going to end well for him.

The good news is that Overeem managed to slaughter Poturak without injuring himself, so he plans to be back in the gym on Monday to prepare for that Strikeforce heavyweight title defense in a few weeks. Something tells me Brett Rogers might put up more of a fight.

(Poturak vs. Melvin Manhoef, 2/13/05.)

Alistair Overeem continues his large-gloved pursuits tonight when he takes on Dževad Poturak in the opening round of the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix (watch a surprisingly depressing promo here) in Yokohama, Japan. Poturak is coming off two straight decision losses and he’s currently a 5-1 underdog in the fight. Basically, he’s supposed to be a side of beef for Overeem to beat on. Hopefully our massive Dutch friend can do that without getting himself hurt. There is that whole Strikeforce heavyweight title defense thing looming on the calendar, and if Overeem puts it off yet again, well, there’s no guarantee that Scott Coker won’t just totally snap and go on a killing spree in downtown San Jose. It’s always the quiet ones.

The fights air live on HDNet at 4 am ET Saturday morning, which means that you can stumble home and microwave some fish sticks just in time to watch Michael Schiavello freak out over some K-1 action. Trust us, you’ll still be hearing his voice in your nightmares long after you’ve passed out.

(Props: youtube.com/K1 via MMA Scraps)

Feel like being entertained for about 24 minutes? Then check out this K-1 knockout compilation, which features kickboxing legends like Ernesto Hoost, Andy Hug, Peter Aerts, Jerome Le Banner, and Mark Hunt leaving their opponents with permanent neurological damage. Part 2 is after the jump. You will not be disappointed.

(Props: YouTube.com/K1 via MMA Fighting)

K-1 recently uploaded some choice highlights from their MMA library onto their YouTube page, featuring early fights from current superstars like Brock Lesnar, BJ Penn, and Lyoto Machida. Above is Lesnar’s pro MMA debut against Min Soo Kim, which went down at Dynamite!! USA in June ’07. Odds are, you’ve watched this fight before — though it’s still worth a look if you’ve never seen the head-clashing faceoff and the fight’s aftermath, in which Lesnar triumphantly stalked around the cage while Kim was slowly brought back to life.

After the jump: Kazushi Sakuraba‘s rematch with Royce Gracie at Dynamite!! USA, BJ Penn’s grudge match with Renzo Gracie at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 in Hawaii, and Lyoto Machida’s fourth pro fight against Michael McDonald at K-1 Beast 2004.

(Semmy Schilt vs. Badr Hari. Props: 19054771 via BloodyElbow)

K-1 legend Semmy Schilt made history today in Yokohama, picking up his fourth K-1 World Grand Prix title — tying him with Ernesto Hoost, who was also a four-time champ — and doing it faster than any other kickboxer before him. Schilt needed just 5:52 of combined fight time to tear apart Jerome Le Banner, defending World GP champion Remy Bonjasky, and Badr Hari; not exactly an easy draw for the 6’11" Dutchman. The final-round victory over Hari avenged a 45-second knockout loss to the Golden Boy that Schilt suffered earlier this year at It’s Showtime 2009 Amsterdam.

Despite all the horsemeat, Alistair Overeem only made it to the semi-finals of today’s tournament. The Demolition Man came out in ferocious fashion, putting Ewerton Teixeira to sleep with a thunderous knee in the quarterfinals. But his semi-final match against old nemesis Badr Hari didn’t go so well. After throwing Hari to the mat on two separate occasions, Overeem was dropped with a right hook to the ear. Forty-five seconds later, Hari landed a left head kick that wobbled Overeem into the turnbuckle, forcing the ref to jump in and stop the fight. Full results and lots more videos after the jump…

At K-1′s "Final 16" event yesterday in Seoul, South Korea, Alistair Overeem once again proved his status as one of the world’s elite heavyweight strikers, easily defeating three-time K-1 World Grand Prix champion Peter Aerts via unanimous decision. With his win, Overeem advances to the eight-man bracket at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final in Yokohama on December 5th. He’ll face Ewerton Teixeira in the quarterfinals, and could potentially face rematches with Badr Hari and Remy Bonjasky in the same night; Hari knocked out Zabit Samedov at yesterday’s event to qualify for the Final 8, while defending Grand Prix champion Bonjasky scored a unanimous decision over Melvin Manhoef.

Full results of the Final 16, and videos of the Hari/Samedov and Bonjasky/Manhoef scraps are after the jump…

(Props: Redneck)

You may have heard stories about Mark Hunt and his legendary granite chin, but unless you go back and watch some of his old K-1 fights, you’ll never truly understand. The Super Samoan’s decision loss to fellow New Zealander Ray Sefo at the K-1 World GP 2001 in Fukuoka, Japan, was a slugfest for the ages, in which Hunt repeatedly invited Sugarfoot Sefo to haul off at his face, and absorbed point-blank right hooks and axe kicks without so much as a flinch. Sefo may have gotten the nod from the judges that night, but Hunt was far from beaten. "You never got me down, Ray" indeed.

Part two of the fight is above. Click here for part one.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

Before Ray Mercer became known as the unstoppable heavyweight juggernaut who wrecked Tim Sylvia in 8 seconds, Mercer had a two-fight kickboxing stint in K-1, losing his debut to Musashi by unanimous decision in June 2004. His second bout against Remy Bonjasky at the K-1 World GP 2005 in Seoul was even less successful. We won’t spoil the suprise for you, but the fight (if you can call it that) starts at the 3:53 mark of the above video and ends very shortly afterwards. It’s pretty sad when losing a match to Kimbo Slice by submission still isn’t the low point in your fight career.

Speaking of Merciless, the former WBO boxing champ and Olympic gold medalist may have his next MMA bout booked. American Top Team boxing coach Howard Davis Jr. is in negotiations to put Mercer against old-schooler Marcus "Conan" Silveira in the main event of a December 12th MMA card called "U.S. vs. Brazil," put on by Davis’s new Fight Time Promotions company.

#0: Heath Herring vs. Yoshihiro Nakao @ K-1 Premium 2005 Dynamite!! (12/31/05), 0 seconds

Who the hell knows what Yoshihiro Nakao was thinking when he planted a surprise smooch on Heath Herring before their fight at K-1’s 2005 New Year’s Eve show. (Maybe that the Texas Crazy Horse would become blinded by lust, leaving him unable to intelligently defend himself?) Unfortunately, not only is Herring “not gay,” but he resents the implication, and responds by punching Nakao right across his sweet, pillowy lips. Even if the match was ruled a no-contest, it’s still a KO at the 0:00 mark of round 1, earning it an honorary spot on our list of Fast & Furious knockouts. Not since the epic Gracie vs. Howard battle at UFC 3 had there been such a dramatic finish to a fight before it had even technically started. And the nickname “Kiss” still haunts Nakao to this day…

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

MMA pioneer Carlos Newton returned to the ‘W’ column on Saturday night at the W-1 Inception show in Gatineau, Quebec, snapping a three-fight losing skid with his KO victory over Nabil Khatib. As you can see in the video above, the Gatineau fans are awful, Newton still looks light on his feet, and he can still pound a motherfucker out when need be. Big ups to the Ronin, who increases his career record to 14-13.

Below: The Melvin Manhoef/Keijiro Maeda scrap from the K-1 World GP event in Yokohama on Saturday, in which the usually-sturdy Manhoef got Kimbo Slice’d by a short right hand from the retreating Japanese fighter. Fans have been calling this one suspicious, but it’s more likely that Maeda just found Melvin’s button.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

After the jump: Houston Alexander stops by the Sport Science lab to test the effects of adrenaline on punching power. The verdict? Houston hits like a hammer in his normal state, and puts out a full 1,000 pounds of force after trainer Mick Doyle provokes him into insanity. And that’s before the needles come out…

(Alistair Overeem presents Remy Bonjasky with the K-1 Oscar for "Best Acting" at today’s pre-event press conference. Bonjasky humbly accepts it, then accuses Overeem of steroid abuse. Yep, that should do it. Props to MMA Scraps for the video.)

The K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 goes down tomorrow in Yokohama, Japan, and will be broadcast live on HDNet. Because of the time difference, it’ll air late tonight in the U.S., at 4 a.m. ET/1 a.m. PT. We’re not fucking vampires, so we’re going to set up the little magic box on our cable TV and watch this thing tomorrow. And it definitely will be worth watching, particularly for the heavyweight headliner between Alistair Overeem and Remy Bonjasky.

If you’ll recall, Overeem most recently scored a shocking first-round TKO over Badr Hari in a K-1 rules match at Fields Dynamite!! 2008 on New Year’s Eve; earlier that month, Hari had his K-1 heavyweight title stripped after he stomped and punched a downed Bonjasky at a K-1 World GP event. You’d think that these experiences would bring Overeem and Bonjasky together as friends, but as you can tell from the above video, not so much. Alistair thinks Remy faked his complaints of vision problems to pick up the DQ win against Hari, while Remy thinks Alistair faked his new muscles. Trash-talk aside, if Overeem can pull this off, it’ll prove that his demolition of Badr Hari was no fluke, and cement his new reputation as the Baddest Heavyweight Striker in the World. And when you have accolades like that, who needs to pass a drug test in the U.S.?

The World GP will also feature a four-man heavyweight tournament starring Melvin Manhoef, and a group of "superfights" that include Semmy Schilt, Jerome Le Banner, Peter Aerts, and Errol Zimmerman. The full fight order is after the jump, courtesy of NightmareOfBattle.

Though he’s being courted by both the UFC and Strikeforce, where he is the reigning heavyweight champ, Alistair Overeem will likely have his next fight back in the K-1 ring.  A report on MixFight.nl, translated by our trusty friend Robert at Free Fight Videos, says Overeem has accepted an offer to fight 2008 K-1 Grand Prix winner Remy Bonjasky at the end of March.

There’s no word yet on whether Bonjasky has officially agreed to the fight, and after seeing what Overeem did to the dude who stomped his head in the finals of the Grand Prix he might be having some doubts.  If he does take the fight he might want to try and bulk up first, considering what a monster Overeem has become.

The bad news for us MMA types is that this further delays Overeem’s return to the land of little gloves.  His recent fights have made me all the more eager to see him in against big time MMA heavyweights, either in the UFC or somewhere else, to see if he can keep up these performances against top-notch opponents in places where there are commissions and – I’ll just say it – drug tests.   Looks like the wait continues.

Just for shits and giggles, rewatch Overeem’s destruction of Badr Hari after the jump.  ‘Cause what else you got to do?

(‘You think I read book, but really in here is nudie magazine.’)

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has had knee surgery and will soon be ready to kick asses and heads once more, though not necessarily in that order.  Now that this lingering problem is fixed we ought to find out if Cro Cop’s recent decline was really due to injuries, or if he’s just losing his touch.  Call me an optimist, but I’m hoping it’s the former.

According to internet rumors, Cro Cop may be headed back to the UFC for the summer event in Germany, or FEG may still be courting him, hoping for a K-1 match with Alistair Overeem and a few more fights in Dream down the road.  That’s all just speculation, though, so don’t get too worked up just yet.  It’s like that old saying: If you want to make God laugh, tell Him Cro Cop’s plans.

In case you’re curious, the book he’s reading appears to be entitled “Secret Societies.”  Anybody else reads that book, I chalk it up to intellectual curiosity.  But when Cro Cop reads it, I can only assume that he’s doing research for when he infiltrates the Croatian version of the Skull and Bones to take them down from the inside as revenge for killing his brother.  Anyone else smell a plot for an awesome action movie here?

I don’t want to speculate as to what kind of diet Alistair Overeem has been on, but as Robert from Free Fight Videos points out with this helpful timeline, dude has gotten progressively bigger over the last few years.  He dwarfed Badr Hari when they squared off at Fields Dynamite, weighing in at 254.3 lbs for the fight.  This is a guy who used to be tall and lanky.  Now he’s a mountain of muscle, with a noticeably bulkier face, and the transformation has happened mostly while fighting in Japan.  There, I said it. It’s now officially MMA news.

Just take a look at this video of Overeem’s fight with Chuck Liddell back in 2003.  He looks like a beanpole compared with the monster who knocked out Hari.  They must have some really excellent weight-gainer shakes in Holland…

Wow.  Who would have thought that a) we’d ever see Mark Hunt get knocked out by something as simple as a left hook-straight right combo, b) in the opening seconds of a fight, and c) by a middleweight.  This is the guy who walked right through a Cro Cop high kick.  Hats off to Melvin Manhoef.  Maybe now he’ll get that fight with Kimbo Slice that he wants. 

More videos from Fields Dynamite 2008 after the jump.

(Shockingly, this wasn’t the best fight of the night. Photo courtesy of CageWriter.) 

Total Bummer Update: The fight between DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen and Gesias Cavalcante was canceled. Hansen did not pass a pre-fight medical examination, reportedly due to a recent hospitalization for a head injury. So that sucks.

K-1 Youth Tournament
Reserve fight: Taishi Hiratsuka def. Daizo Sasaki via KO, 1:00 of round 2
Semi-final 1: Koya Urabe def. Tatsuya Kusakabe via TKO, 2:21 of round 3
Semi-final 2: Hiroya def. Shota Shimada via unanimous decision
Final: Hiroya def. Koya Urabe via unanimous decision

DREAM rules: Ikuhisa "Minowaman" Minowa def. Errol Zimmerman via submission (toe-hold), 1:01 of round 1

K-1 rules: Artur Kyshenko def. Yoshihiro Sato via unanimous decision

DREAM rules: Daisuke Nakamura def. Hideo Tokoro via submission (armbar), 2:23 of round 1

DREAM rules: Andy Ologun def. Yukio Sakaguchi via KO, 3:52 of round 1

DREAM rules: Bob Sapp def. Akihito Tanaka (aka "Kinniku Mantaro") via TKO, 5:22 of round 1. Tanaka put Sapp in trouble early with takedowns and ground-and-pound, but Sapp was able to get to his feet and tag Kinnikuman with some of his big, wild punches against the ropes until the fight was stopped.

DREAM rules: Semmy Schilt def. Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga via submission (triangle choke), 5:31 of round 1

DREAM rules: Hayato Sakurai def. Katsuyori Shibata via TKO, 7:01 of round 1

K-1 rules: Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kozo Takeda via TKO, 2:37 of round 1. Kawajiri dropped Takeda twice with punches in the first round, then once more with a flying knee. It was the first in a series of dominant victories by MMA fighters in kickboxing matches at Dynamite!! 2008.

(Now that I think about it, Kinnikuman would fit in perfectly with the TapouT crew.  Somebody get Punk-Ass to bring the bus around and pick him up.)

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you really want to bet on K-1 Dynamite 2008 tonight, which you probably won’t get to watch until tomorrow and which may or may not turn out to be a total shitstorm.  First, you’re a crazy son of a bitch, you know that?  Second, we got you covered.  Here are the best odds on the ‘net, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Joachim Hansen (+150) vs. Gesias Cavalcante (-105)
Kazushi Sakuraba (-125) vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (+120)
Eddie Alvarez (-105) vs. Shinya Aoki (+120)
Semmy Schilt (-531) vs. Siala Siliga (+450)
Hong Man Choi (+160) vs Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (-155)
Daisuke Nakamura (-110) vs. Hideo Tokoro (+135)
Alistair Overeem (+270) vs. Badr Hari (-250)

Thoughts…