FightPost MMA Fighter of the Week: Alistair Overeem

FightPost MMA Fighter of the Week: Alistair Overeem

By Kieran Cobley

This week’s Fighter of the Week is MMA and Kickboxing legend Alistair Overeem, who scored a knockout victory over Ukrainian MMA veteran Aleksei Oleinik at UFC St. Petersburg.

Going into the fight, there were a lot of questions surrounding who would win in the clinch exchanges, which is where the fight looked likely to end up on paper.

Oleinik (57-12-1) is a submission specialist, with the key to his grappling success being to grab a hold of his opponent in the clinch before securing a takedown into a submission attempt.

Overeem (45-17, 1NC) has scored 51% (23) of his wins via KO/TKO, with the Dutch superstar being known for his Dutch-kickboxing clinch style, that allows him to hit powerful knees while holding his opponent in place.

The pair almost immediately clinched as soon as the fight started, with “The Boa Constrictor” pulling Overeem down to the mat on top of him, before looking to lock him an Ezekial Choke, a submission he has become well known for.

The ground exchange didn’t last long though, with Overeem getting out of a choke that never looked to be synced in, before getting back to his feet, which is where the former Strikeforce heavyweight and K1 World Grand Prix champion has the advantage.

Oleinik tried striking with Overeem, but had a tendency to bob his head Overeem’ knee strikes, which Overeem took advantage of, catching Oleinik with a few on the counter.

However, the Ukrainian soon found his marks, hitting Overeem with a heavy overhand right, which sent Overeem backwards to the fence, before following in with heavy shots, as he looked to finish his rocked opponent.

“The Reem” weathered the storm though, wrapping Oleinik into a clinch before looking to get away from the fence.

This sequence happened almost immediately after.

Oleinik threw, got caught with a knee. Oleinik threw again, but landed and followed up to try finish the fight against the cage, before Overeem tied up Oleinik in the clinch again.

While Oleinik did look to be having some success on the feet, rocking Overeem a couple of times and landing some heavy shots, it was clear he was out of his depth, and that Overeem’s strong clinch game made securing another takedown almost impossible.

This wasn’t the only problem the Ukrainian had, with the step up from light heavyweight to heavyweight taking a toll on his gas tank, with every strike looking to bleed run it out just a little more each time.

Overeem took advantage of this, putting the visibly gassed Oleinik up against the fence in a Thai clinch, before smashing him with devastating knees.

The Ukranain dropped to the floor, before Overeem followed up with heavy shots to get the KO victory.

I’m unsure where Overrem goes from here. Two of the top heavyweight contenders at the minute, Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, have beaten him, and a rematch with Junior Dos Santos (who Overeem beat in 2015) doesn’t looked to be on the cards with the Brazilian set to take on Ngannou in what looks like a title eliminator in just a few months time.