K-1 World GP 2010 Final:-After winning the K-1 Grand Prix Tournament, Alistair Overeem is on top of the world in combat sports. Join Jon Kirschner as he analyzes why Overeem should be the most feared fighter in MMA and what this tournament win means for his MMA career.
The 2010 K-1 Grand Prix finale was Friday night and it was a great display of heart and desire by all who competed in it. Most bout results were as expected, but they were back and forth battles that could have gone either way at certain points in the fight. Perhaps the greatest upset was Peter Aerts victory over Semmy Schilt, who was favored to meet Alistair Overeem in the finals. Aerts would be the one to fight Overeem in the finals, who had a relatively easy path set ahead of him. It would be Overeem’s composure and selectiveness that got him to the final bout of the tournament.
Aerts’ decision victory was an amazing feat, but it damaged him so much that he was showing signs of fatigue from the opening bell. Also sporting a fight-pausing cut over his right eye, saying Aerts looked in bad shape was a complement. Overeem’s semi-final bout ended in the first round after he dislocated his opponent’s elbow with a blocked body-kick, so Overeem was walking into the finals not only fresh, but showing no visible damage from his previous two fights. Overeem pressed from the opening minute throwing punches and knees in bunches until he eventually cornered Aerts. After Overeem unloaded on Aerts, Aerts finally collapsed to the ground and wouldn’t stand up in time for the ten-count, giving Alistair Overeem his first K-1 Tournament Championship in just his second year of K-1 competition.
Alistair Overeem has shown so much improvement in his K-1 game since his loss against Badr Hari in 2009. On the offensive side of things, he learned how to select his shots with precision. On the defensive side of things, he displayed his evolution when he kept his composure when he got knocked loopy with a shot. What gave him the biggest advantage of all was his learning of utilizing the distance; the more he pressed the action and kept the distance closed he would always come out on top of the encounters. The scary part is that all of this translates very well into mixed martial arts.
It has always been touted that K-1 level strikers have the advantage in MMA, and it’s been proven true on multiple occasions. If the fight stays standing, nine times out of ten the K-1 level striker will walk out with a victory. Usually if it goes to the ground, the K-1 level striker would have a disadvantage. Overeem on the other hand is not your average K-1 striker; he has K-1 level striking and is fantastic on the ground. The fact that Alistair Overeem is walking out of this tournament with the championship around his waist whilst also holding the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title essentially makes him the real baddest man in mixed martial arts today. He has defeated all of his recent competition with ease thanks to his with superior striking, and has proven to be a threat in the submission game in the past (he was the first person to ever submit Vitor Belfort). And having fulfilled his goal to win kickboxing’s most prestigious tournament, Alistair Overeem will likely become more active in the world of MMA.
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