Strikeforce Results: Alistair Overeem advances to the Semi-Finals after a bizarre fight with Fabricio Werdum

this decision really is BS. i don't see any way of justifying overeem's win here. 4th round would have made more sense, but i even give it to Werdum up to that point. guess rematch with Fedor is next...

Based on striking alone I could see your point but Alistair had the better cage control and was able to throw and take down Werdum on a number of occasions. He also got the better of the ground exchanges. If it had gone to Werdum I wouldn't have questioned it too much but I think Overeem did legitimately win this MMA fight. I hope you are right about a rematch with Fedor. I think it is just what Fedor needs to get back in form. Unfortunately I suspect that the purpose of fighting Hendo is so that Fedor can have one more High profile win before retiring.

Reem looked real skechy, i think this was one of the most pathetic performance i have seem from him, Werdum did pretty bad to. Hope this is like one of his bad days because if he does this bad against big foot he is gonna get hurt

@ Nik. I think everyone is WAAAAY over-rating Big Foot, including, of course, Big Foot himself.



Has everyone else but me forgotten that he beat an old and out-sized Fedor, but PRIOR to that, he got his pu$$y just about stomped by a LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT?!?



Mike Kyle had him rocked and was beating his ass for a good portion of that fight.



So, should we really be worried about Reem's performance here?

If Mike Kyle can stomp Big Foot's ass -even for a portion of a fight- then I'm not worried about what Overeem can do to him.



Big Foot is getting his ****y ass stomped, god-willing, and Overeem will (probably) meet Barnett in the final.



Nothing against you, Nik, it just seems to me that everyone is forgetting how well Kyle did against Big Foot and looking at Silva as though he's the second coming of Christ after beating the old-version of Fedor.

Reem is going to KO Big Foot because:



1) His striking is at a much higher level.

2) He is much faster.

3) He is much more explosive.

4) Big Foot will not flop to his back every time Overeem throws a punch. (Except when one actually lands and he is KO'd.)



The only reason Reem looked bad was because Werdum refused to exchange for any length of time. It's really hard to hit a guy when all he wants to do is lie on his back.



Anderson Silva looked bad against Thales Leites for the same reason. It sure as hell didn't mean the next guy he fought was going to beat him... or the next... or the next.

You are also forgetting something. Mike Kyle has bombs in his hands. Not only that but Big Foot out boxed Arlovski for three rounds which is probably more impressive that knocking him out and he looked much better against Werdum than Overeem did until he gassed. He seems to have improved his cardio since then so I don't see that as a problem, especially since Overeem displayed pretty poor cardio last night. All in all I think Overeem V Big Foot is a pretty hard fight to call.

Seems like Werdum "big surprise' is playing possum, goes down with pulls guard with every little touch, what a bitch, thats he won the fedor fight.



That said I am slightly disappointed with overeem performance, he seemed a lil gun shy and gassed out in the later rounds, hate to say this but he might not do too well against well rounded ufc hw such as jds, cane etc. I just hope its ring rust cause i'm starting to have some doubt in one of my favorite fighters

that sucks if Werdum keep fallen down and pulling guard if it was a BJJ

fight but its not its MMA and at there level...basically it was try not to lose

instead of need the win...and if the guy is going to fall back and every

time you come in makes for hard fight to do and sorry fight to watch

your retarded if you say werdum won

The only reason Werdum landed more strikes was because when he came forward, Overeem covered up and looked to counter like a fighter should. When Overeem came forward, Werdum flopped to his back, opened his legs, smiled and beckoned. It's hard to punch a guy that keeps doing that.



More importantly, Overeems strikes were far more effective. He knocked down and threw Werdum down repeatedly, while Werdum never managed to rattle Overeem at all.



I think in MMA scoring, if a fighter wants to make it look like he got knocked down, it should be scored a knocked down, and like in boxing, a knock down should result in an entire point off your score. That way, Werdum's 100 flops would have resulted in a 30- (-70) decision for Overeem. This scoring system would discourage the type of ridiculous gameplan that Werdum tried to implement.

there's no way that overeem wins the tourney, kids. after last night, it's clear the reem will fold under pressure. i mean, if crazy horse werdum can **** his whole mind up by being the aggressor, imagine... why should fabricio be ashamed are you fvcking kidding me? if anything be ashamed of being scared to go to the ground, gameplan or no, werdum looked better in the standup. so eat a piece. and im an overeem fan too, i though it was ridiculous and could tell overeem was very close to breaking mentally.

Close to breaking mentally? It's called frustration. He owned Fabricio, sorry to say. He toyed with him, showing superiority. Frustration and breaking mentally are two entirely different ballgames.



Frustrates me how you are such an idiot. Go play in the traffic, buttplug.

yea and go fvck yourself

DRAW I SAID> OPEN YOUR FVCKING EARS

Mite not have been exciting but that was the perfect strategy by pulling guard that many times, its foolish to stand with Reem when ur biggest strength is BJJ.....Shields should hve done the same thing against GSP.....happy Reem won semis should be great

Also happy that Barnett won, always liked him, one of the most well rounded MMA fighters, glad to see him go to the semis

Very weird fight , Overeem had the first round clearly but after that it was just weird, Werdum even land more strikes than Alistar

Alistar look very shy with his hands , i dont really see a real winner here

that was the worst way to get eliminated in the Tournament Werdum



Very disappointed with Overeem lets hope he can get his stuuf together , Big Foot is no joke.

Yea Werdum looked horrible with the falling to the mat technique but in the standup he looked pretty good. When it was over I was clueless on who should win.

The reem won't beat josh and damn sure would not be able to hang with the ufc top five.. sorry for me those dreams are out of the window. think people gave him to much credit just because of how he looks but lets be honest this performance showed why he should never be ranked top 5 in the world.

Never is a strong word....everyone has bad nights n even on Reems bad night he got the W n not to mention he couldn't let go as he would hve liked to with all the guard pulling by Werdum which btw was a great idea.....I considered Reem top 5 b4 this fight n still do after this fight but he isnt top 10 p4p imo

Over one bad performance? Go watch Mir V Cro Cop or Carwin V Lesner or GSP V Sera I or Penn V Hughes II or JDS V Nelson or any number of fights where UFC top 5 guys looked bad. It happens.

I think he dropped down. And just when I was about to start buying into the Reem. He needs to prove himself first now in my opinion. He is getting waaaaay too much credit in the MMA world. If he beats Bigfoot convincingly I think he will deserve that credit. Right now I would say he is overrated.

thing is.... werdum landed more on the stand up than overeem! it was bizarre and hilarious to watch.

jds beat werdum in the first round as a first time starter.in little over a min....overeem is a bum..

i think it just shows how well rounded jds and cain is, not minding that they have good cardios. if werdum does that to any top UFC hw he will be smashed and smash good. If verdum manage to hit overeem with good shoots, i cant imagine what cain and jds well carwin(a bit ) can do to him. With good wrestling background werdum and overeem will have a hard time with ufc top HW guys. just an opinion

calling overeem a bum is retarded, but after this last week im convinced that junior would beat overeem, and probly everyone else in the tourny.

And some of the people on this site called me crazy for saying JDS was a better striker than Overeem...

It's tough to say until they fight, JDS is certainly much quicker and Overeem's style to win the K1 grand prix was basically shell, eat everything they threw at them then blast with power shots. It's a lot harder to shell up and take no damage with 4 ounce mma gloves on than 10 ounce boxing gloves and I think Werdum showed that. Werdum landed more clean strikes than Overeem but they had absolutely no power behind them. If JDS gets those shots through then Overeem is going to be waking up face down but then of course Overeem won't be as worried about the take down and will be more willing to strike. We'll obviously never know until we see them fight of course but you'd be a fool to discount JDS in the standup realm against Overeem.

Remember, JDS was an unknown at the time and Werdum was in no way afraid of his standup - clearly that was a poor tactical error. If Werdum gave Overeem as little respect as he did JDS in that fight I'm sure the fight would have looked different. But that being said, Overeem's performance left a lot of questions. He absolutely manhandled Werdum and tossed him around like a child but wouldn't open up with his hands out of fear of being taken down.

i think bigfoot is going to smash reem . allistar gassed and really took way to many shits from a sub par striker. it seemed that allistar has a hard time with opponents he cant physicaly dominate or who are close to his own size

too many shits? haha

it pisses me off how judges don't credit the jiu jitsu game only because they do not comprehend it.

Well pulling guard is only useful when u actually pull the guy down with u which Werdum failed to do like 99% of the time n when he actually did pull guard effectively Werdum couldn't do anything with it as Reem was able control Werdum stopping him from attempting anything

I agree, but in this case Werdum attempted a lackluster leg lock at the end with Reem defended easily against (therefore him showing good BJJ) and he pulled guard, putting Reem into dominant positions.. if anything his horrible attempt of BJJ in the fight helped him lose it. I expected more form a BJJ World Champ

Overeem did nothing in this fight. He hit Werdum with a handful of strikes and that's it. He shrugged off takedowns and well.... that's it. Werdum beat him on the feet. He just looked horrible trying to get it too the ground which lost him the fight. I feel like if Overeem just pushed the pace a little bit and got in Werdum's face, he would have won easily. It was crazy to me that Werdum was actually the aggresor.

The Reem was still WAY out of breath after the fight. I am actually starting to think the finals may be between Barnett and Silva. I am definitely NOT jumping ship on Overeem but he needs to do something different in his next camp.

mate i agree 100% with what you said. WAR OVEREEM but still he needs to train his cardio big time, also work on that striking guard

he fought smart but it also looked to me like he was out of shape for an mma fight..

Personally i think this fight would have been a called by JMMA, Overeem landed a couple of power shots, but Werdrum got the better of the stand up, and most of Overeems takedows were Werdums attempt to pull guard even the strikes, much like he did against Fedor. It is too bad Werdum couldn't get much going from the ground, i think that is the reason he lost in the judges eyes, otherwise I say it should have been a 5 round fight, because i thought it was draw and should have gone into the 4th round for sudden death.

undoubtedly gonna get weaked for this cos everyone on here is all over anton's freshly shaven eastern european balls BUT... is there any chance of you running the article through a spell check before posting it? (vitory? advaned? agained?)



Also, despite being a good victory for the reem, this fight (seeing overeem on the mat a few times) made me think that velasquez -should he get through dos santos (no mean feat) - would most likely maul him... i see cain just taking him down with relative ease and if not finishing him on the mat taking a 50-45 decision...

I think Overeem's two biggest problems are:

His cardio was bad in this fight. I realise how tiring blocking countless takedowns from a big dude, scrambling back up onto your feet with a world class BJJ guy on top of you and swinging haymakers is tiring as shit but for this tournament ad especially Silva he is going to need to work heavily on the cardio if he wants to stay in it.

Secondly he needs to close that damn striking guard!!!! He stands there with his elbows miles away from each other and he does not attempt to block a single knee or uppercut, this is eventually going to catch up with him and he was even stunned a couple of times in this fight by Werdum. I expect more from official best kickboxer in the world,get those elbows nice and tight, especially with Overeem's not so great chine he needs to be careful.



Both of these two weaknesses of his will be his bane when he reaches the UFC, Cain will knee the shit out of his chin and JDS will give him similar treatment he served Werdum, also the cardio problem will completely stop him from any chance of winning if it gets outta the first especially with the pace Cain sets.



One note to add to his performance is I couldn't believe he was sitting in Werdum's top 3 world wide guard, and even more shockingly letting him have wrist control! I genuinely looked away crapping myself expecting a reenactment of Werdum vs. Fedor. He managed to survive pretty well on the ground but it could be because Werdum was gassed. He also let Werdum get a leg lock, I don't care how long is left in the round don't give Fabricio any limbs, he already has your arm on his mantle piece for crying out loud!



I may sound like a Zuffa Zombie so far in this post but infact Overeem is one of my favourite fighters and my favourite heavywight.



In conclusion, Overeem vs. Werdum 2 was my most anticipated fight for this year and both let me down massively! While glad Overeem won, he needs to work on a lot of things for his next fight, and even more so if he wants to get anywhere near that UFC gold.

That's the thing about Overeem. When he's good, he's great. When he's bad, he's horrible. A lot of the fans on most MMA sites always focus on his wins, but never on his losses. This isn't the first time Overeem got outstruck. Sure he won the fight, but to have him as a top 5 HW or even a top 10 P4P is ridiculous. I've been saying it for a long time now. JDS and Cain would destroy the current Overeem.



BTW, Barnett showed us tonight that beating Brett Rogers is not that big a deal.

alister played a cautious game...he remembered how he lost last time and has obviously done his homework on how werdum takes his wins.

alister looked gunshy because he knew werdum was looking to take his hands and drop down to the floor to tie him up and submit him



the problem some of you guys here,even some of the moderators,unless a fighter is smashing the shit out of another,its deemed a rubbish/boring fight...this is not the case,its game-planning and strategy.

alister has a lot riding on him atm and to lose just to go in guns blazing is not a smart move for him in this fight as he knows werdum is no easy fight.he did what he did and no doubt,if werdum had stood his ground,who knows what couldve happened...im not saying alister is the terminater or anything but we all know how powerfull he is and mightve dominated werdum,but as we all saw,werdum was landing most of the strikes so if it went all 3 rounds,werdum mightve won via decision that way,but he chose to drop to the mat most the fight which in a fans and judges eyes,backing off from the fight...as an earlier poster said,IF hed have had hold of werdum,then yeah,werum very proberbly wouldve won this fight but he didnt and in my eyes,werdum created this 'boring' fight as alister just wanted to do 'his thang' and stand and smash,get in close and destroy werdums face...



i think many people here need to step back and look at what cage-fighting is all about and its technical abilities involved...this is a controlled and discaplined sport,not bare-knuckle street-fighting where its whoevers last standing by whatever means wins...theres a slight difference.



i understand we'd all love massive slugfest fights (eg. sean sherk vs bj penn,carwin vs lesnar,wanderlai vs rampage) but the mma game is a whole lot more tecnical than that



maybe a rule of if any of the fights go the way this one did,maybe an extra sudden death round to declare the winner shoulve been introduced...it is a gp after all and the rules can differ from a normal 3/5 round fight



sorry for lengthy spiel...ive been up all night here in the UK and its now 8.06am...time for sleep

Werdum would have been KOed if he didn't pull that silly gameplan (the ref should have warned him after several tries). Sure, he did land more strikes and should have won if it was judged on the numbers alone, but Werdum was the one in trouble several times.



More strikes landing doesn't necessarily mean outstriking. 3 rounds of kickboxing and the result would have been clear.

i meant if it went all 3 rounds with werdum dominating the striking...

I wasn't surprised that Werdum got Overeem to the ground and was able to keep him there for a little while. What I was surprised by was Werdum's striking. He was landing decent combinations and hurt Overeem a couple times. To me, his constant pulling guard was what lost him the fight.



I can't believe I'm saying this, but Werdum would have won that fight if he kept it standing all 3 rounds instead of constantly trying to go to the ground.



Overeem is gonna get dominated by Silva if he fights like this in the semi-finals.

Although i think if werdum stood up 3 rounds, he would get cought

Big Foot wins Overeem.

Justice has been served for Werdum.

imo the ref should have warn him a view times.



This fight looked alot like Shinya Aoki vs. Yuichiro Nagashima, where aoki acted like an idiot aswell.

I didn't bother watching these fights. Seems like to me I made the smarter decision

I didn't like how Werdum kept falling on his back everytime Overeem touched him, and Overeem stuffed all of his takedowns. Werdum also stalled alot and the ref should have taken a point away. Overeem didn't look all too sharp either, and I never noticed this before, but Overeem only really throws solo power punches, and doesn't throw any jabs or combos. Thats the reason Werdum was landing more because he was throwing combinations. PPl forget Werdum is a Muy Thai black belt too. Im still surprised by his lack of defense from Werdum's punches, hopefully last night was just an off day for him b/c he'll be in trouble against a guy like JDS or even Fedor and Bigfoot. Since Fedor's out, I'm rooting for Overeem to win the rest

I’m tired of all this UFC trolls. Hey haters remember that big country Nelsen got knockout by

Andre the Pit-bull Aloveski. My point is style make fights stop with that calling Strikeforce heavyweights 2nd tier fighters. I believe JDS

could not even hurt and let alone knockout Roy Nelsen,does that mean JDS is second tier fighter my answer is no. Strikeforce has by far overall

superior heavyweight fighters. So you haters get on that treadmill and start work that fat off before you become real Zuffa zombies for real.