How good was Alistair Overeem?

Y

Yrat

Banned
Banned
Joined
Jul 8, 2005
Messages
4,106
Reaction score
1,684
First of all Overeem have fought the best fighters in the world during the last 20 years so he deserve slot of respect.

During pride he fought the wrong weight class so my question here below

- would overeem do better in hw if he fought in that division 2003-2005 in Pride and weighted around 102-105 kg?

- how would overeem do in ufc at heavyweight if he signed with ufc in 2007? Could he beat Tim Sylvia, Gabriel Gonzaga and Randy Couture and earn that ufc belt let's say 2008?

- would overeem handle Fedor back in 2008-2009 if the fight took place in Dream?

Despite his career in mma is done he have so many noteable wins such as Igor Vovchanchyn, Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Alexey Olenik, Sergey Kharitonov, Vitor Belfort

I believe that Overeem came in to late in Ufc to fight for the belt. He should have done that back in 2007-2008
 
Do better? I guess. It was the Fedor, Cro-cop, Nog show. Those guys were all better than him, so if you’re asking would he have become champ the answer is no.

I believe Randy would’ve tooled him, even in 2007. We’re talking about a Reem who got annihilated by the top guys a year or two before. Randy, or Handy, was a better champion. Well, he actually was a champion.

Uber-Reem would’ve beaten Fedor.
 
He fought roided out dudes that outweighed him by a bunch as a young skinny LHW. He wrecked his chin early. Later on he developed into a very skilled fighter. Then he got on the sauce and became Ubereem a mythical figure. Then USADA ruined it. He is a very skilled fighter whose androgen receptors are out of this world. Definitely a big part of MMA history.
 
At this level in the sport In think the key to greatness is fight iq & mental toughness. Fedor & Randy were 2 of the best in that regard but not Reem.

During his Pride run Overeem got a reputation for lack of mental toughness (wilting under pressure). After Pride we got Ubereem who was basically a steroid bully in terms of fighting style. IMO he regressed skillwise during this time but it was fun to watch his fights especially K1.

His fight iq improved in recent years when he changed his fighting style to become Econoreem, this extended his fighting career by years.

I'd rank Reem in my top 15 hw's, maybe top 10. Fedor is at the top, Randy's in my top 5-10
 
Yrat said:
First of all Overeem have fought the best fighters in the world during the last 20 years so he deserve slot of respect.

During pride he fought the wrong weight class so my question here below

- would overeem do better in hw if he fought in that division 2003-2005 in Pride and weighted around 102-105 kg?

- how would overeem do in ufc at heavyweight if he signed with ufc in 2007? Could he beat Tim Sylvia, Gabriel Gonzaga and Randy Couture and earn that ufc belt let's say 2008?

- would overeem handle Fedor back in 2008-2009 if the fight took place in Dream?

Despite his career in mma is done he have so many noteable wins such as Igor Vovchanchyn, Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Alexey Olenik, Sergey Kharitonov, Vitor Belfort

I believe that Overeem came in to late in Ufc to fight for the belt. He should have done that back in 2007-2008
Click to expand...
I believe Overeem was the most technically gifted heavyweight, skill wise, amazing striking, can grapple, etc but his chin was so bad (even at the start of his career) it didn’t matter how skilled he was it always a massive set back. Only when he took TRT was his chin better and it showed.
 
Portland8242 said:
Prime Ubereem would have smoked the entire UFC HW division in the late 2000's and he would have smoked Fedor in his prime too. Fedor ducked the shit out of him.
Click to expand...

He'd have also had a very stop start career as he'd have been testing positive every fight. Guy got suspended after that Brock fight and that was before the UFC even really cared about testing properly.

He must have been on some real special sauce if even the UFC caught it in the early 2010s.
 
At HW, Skill wise he's probably the best overall, striking specialist with very good wrestling and BJJ. If only he had a matching chin, he would likely have been champion.
 
He wouldn't just be able to transform into Uber form when he started as a skinny teen. The 205 version became bigger even before the horsemeat, so easier to add mass when older, in late 20's. LHW was the right div for him when he was young. But later HW was right.

In 07-08 Uber form would've killed Sylvia and Couture. But Reem had trouble pre-USADA, like the sudden trip to Holland. And given Fedor trouble, but Fedor still had his old stuff back then, the speed, timing and power standing. While Overeem always had a weak chin and cardio issues. So smart money would be on Fedor. Fedor could go the distance while performing at a elite level. Reem couldn't. He was always a 1st round danger.
 
Very good, in both his striking and grappling. Entertaining in both Kickboxing and MMA, win or lose.
 
Overeem has so many talents and physical attributes. Skilled in Dutch style boxing. His height made his knees even more dangerous. Great guillotine. Naturally very strong as long as he had access to horse meat.

But, above all, his greatest ability was how he always found a way to get knocked out. Only late career Chuck was better at it.
 
Yrat said:
First of all Overeem have fought the best fighters in the world during the last 20 years so he deserve slot of respect.

During pride he fought the wrong weight class so my question here below

- would overeem do better in hw if he fought in that division 2003-2005 in Pride and weighted around 102-105 kg?

- how would overeem do in ufc at heavyweight if he signed with ufc in 2007? Could he beat Tim Sylvia, Gabriel Gonzaga and Randy Couture and earn that ufc belt let's say 2008?

- would overeem handle Fedor back in 2008-2009 if the fight took place in Dream?

Despite his career in mma is done he have so many noteable wins such as Igor Vovchanchyn, Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Alexey Olenik, Sergey Kharitonov, Vitor Belfort

I believe that Overeem came in to late in Ufc to fight for the belt. He should have done that back in 2007-2008
Click to expand...

Ubereem is top 5 HW, Overeem was a journeyman at best.
 
If he had a better chin and striking defence he could have been the HW Goat
 
The greatest heavyweight to never win a major MMA title.

Lot of losses but probably the most skilled HW the division ever saw, he was good everywhere. Had flaws in his fight IQ & defense which saw him a few losses but never the less, he had a hell of a resume.
 
Had all the tools to be the top dog. Just chinny.
 
He’s one of the 10 best HWs of all time imo (PED failures notwithstanding). I do think he’d have been UFC champ in 2008-2009. While I’d have liked him to come to the UFC earlier, I don’t think he necessarily came too late—he was just never the same after pissing hot. Had that not happened, I was picking Reem to beat JDS at UFC 146. I think he would’ve been champ then if the fight had held together.
 
cheesus said:
The greatest heavyweight to never win a major MMA title.

Lot of losses but probably the most skilled HW the division ever saw, he was good everywhere. Had flaws in his fight IQ & defense which saw him a few losses but never the less, he had a hell of a resume.
Click to expand...
You don’t consider the Strikeforce belt a major MMA title?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

L
Who was the better heavyweight striker between Overeem and Cro Cop?
5 6 7
Replies
134
Views
5K
HHJ
HHJ

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,988
Messages
55,459,622
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top