PEDs aside - How do you explain Overeem's ups, downs and his resurgence

1. PEDS
2. HW is weak
3. HWs seem to "age better" than smaller athletes
4. Fight outcomes are more vaiable than most people accept.
 
Bend NvR Break said:
You're thinking about Josh Barnett
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Barnett gets busted and looks like shit, plus his excuses are not as great as Reem

Prior to the UFC 146 press conference in March, I aggravated an old rib injury on my left side. My doctor prescribed, and I accepted, an anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone. I was completely unaware that testosterone was one of the ingredients in the medication. Although I was unaware, I do realize it is my job to know what I am putting into my body.


 
Extremely skilled and dangerous fighter,with some holes(chin,heart and cardio) that can lead to defeats,sometimes embarassing(Bigfoot and Rothwel). Now that he's training with Jacskon-Winklejon he learned how to maximize his skills and cover his holes.
 
DespicablePeep said:
Barnett gets busted and looks like shit, plus his excuses are not as great as Reem

Prior to the UFC 146 press conference in March, I aggravated an old rib injury on my left side. My doctor prescribed, and I accepted, an anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone. I was completely unaware that testosterone was one of the ingredients in the medication. Although I was unaware, I do realize it is my job to know what I am putting into my body.
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Yeah I know. Barnett doesn't give excuses. He just accepts his suspensions and keeps shooting up.
 
He is the ultimate glass cannon and has been since the beginning of his fighting career. If I'm not mistaken someone once called him "The greatest fighter in the world for the first round" or something like that in his PRIDE LHW days. Hard to argue looking at his fights. He was beating Liddell's ass in the beginning phase of their fight to name one example. Other than that he was never consistent until recently.

I think it is very impressive that he has managed to get some consistency going in the HW division. That is impressive for any HW, let alone someone like Overeem who has a suspect chin and a lot of mileage on him.

As far as the roids go, back when he was Ubereem I think it was more the mental game that molded his style. Even with his chin he never backed down from anyone and kept coming forward due to his ludicrous power and strength coupled with great technical ability. That boosted his confidence and intimidated opponents. Look at the Brock fight. Went for one half-assed takedown and then gave up. Werdum: flop-tastic fight (the 2nd one). Rogers: was beaten from pillar to post, continously forced to move backwards.

Nowadays he still has the technical ability but the surplus in power diminished. He still has plenty but has had to adapt his style accordingly. Rothwell would not have been able to move him in the clinch if he were still Ubereem. Offensively he would have gone for the clinch-knee-throw more as well and someone like Stipe would have had a very hard time taking him down / stacking him like that.
 
He's always been very skillful all-around, especially in striking, and with or without physical enhancements that base doesn't go away.

Keeps an open mind in training and adds new stuff like the variety of kicks Winkeljohn teaches his fighters.

Reem's older now, past his prime, so he's also learned how to slow the pace down to land with a high percentage over a longer course with less volume to not gas as fast, instead of going all out like earlier in his career (or even later when he came to the UFC).
 
Highly skilled but a poor chin. He's like the boss of a video game. He can kick your ass but has a flashing red damage point on his chin you just have to hit.

If you can't hit it, you die. If you can, you win. Overeem in a nutshell.
 
Overeem is an amazing fighter, but yeah... Dat chin and heart though... His cardio seemed to have improved.
 
A bunch of reasons, glass chin, shitty cardio, on and off steroids, but I think the biggest flaw is his weak will. Call it the Vitor Belfort syndrome.. When both of them are winning, they are very aggressive. When either of them faces the slightest adversity, they fold.

Greg Jackson has tailored Overeem's style into a more defensive one so that he doesn't get into firefights where he will get dinged and run away or fold. Hence his recent success. However, that has changed his fight style to the point where he is literally embarassing to watch. His fight with Werdum was a fricken travesty.
 
SubmarinerX said:
He started off great, was touted as a destroyer of worlds when he came to the UFC, and demolished Brock Lesnar.

After that he went on a losing streak. After Bigfoot I thought "he got overconfident", after Browne "he gassed himself out, low fight iq", then he beat Mir in less than impressive fashion and didn't look like a worldbeater at all, not even in winning. The lowpoint of his career came when Rothwell knocked him out in the first round and danced over his lifeless body.

After that I thought he would get cut. I also thought he might had never been that good and that the UFC had to feel sorry for paying him so much when he didn't deliver at all. He won a few against subpar competition and when they announced the fight against JDS I thought "Rest in Uberpeace". But then - all of a sudden - the most suspect chin at HW knocked out the hardest hitter in the UFC. He actually went on a winning streak and fought for the title. And although he got knocked out he doesn't seem to be too far away from another title shot. And if he claims UFC gold he has a case for (at least top 3) HW GOAT.

How do you explain his late resurgence (I guess he is one of the most tested athletes now) and his success after such a long career and huge mileage and after had got knocked out and down to gatekeeper level essentially? Has Reem really improved this much? How do you improve so much so late in your career? Or was he just unlucky?

Honestly, I find his story most inspiring. Who would have thought that he could become a top guy after he had just lost to Rothwell, Browne and Bigfoot.
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PEDs aside...








See empty space above.
 
Inconsistency is the hallmark of good but not great athletes. Overeem is no different.
 
Confidence issues.

Sometimes it was up, sometimes down.
 
tenniswhiz said:
Even if he gets the UFC belt, I wouldn't put him Top 5 HW of all time.
His record is incredibly spotty.
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22-6 as a HW.

1 loss already avaneged by Werdum and would beat Rothwell, BF, Browne, Kharitonov in rematches.
 
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