Latest Chapter in Fedor/Overeem Saga

[Starchild]

After months of Alistair Overeem publicly blaming M-1 Global for keeping him from fighting Fedor Emelianenko, the “Last Emperor” finally came out this week and said he would fight Overeem by the end of the year. Great news, right? Well, it would be, except that Overeem now says he doesn’t want to fight Fedor. At least not until the former consensus No.1-ranked heavyweight gets back on the winning track. Instead, Overeem says he’ll compete in K-1's 2010 Grand Prix, which could keep him tied up from October to December.

That faint crashing sound you just heard was us throwing our favorite coffee mug – the “I Love Iowa” one we got in grad school – against the wall.

“They already declined to fight me," an incredulous Overeem told MMAjunkie.com yesterday. "They know I'm not going to accept (a fight with Emelianenko right now) ... Now, all of a sudden, they've dropped their terms. Now, they do want to fight me. It's all tricks, and I don't feel pressured by it at all."

Overeem claimed his plan all along was to fight the winner of Emelianenko’s June fight with Fabricio Werdum. After Werdum unexpectedly caught Fedor in a triangle choke, the Strikeforce champ said he set his heart on a bout with the suddenly potent Brazilian submission ace. But with Werdum now out tending to an injured elbow, Overeem has made other plans. Kickboxing plans. Plans that can’t be changed, apparently.

"For now, I'm in the tournament,” Overeem said. “I want to fight Fedor. I'm not negative about that fight, but I do believe he needs to win … because when I fight Fedor, I'm sure it's going to be a title fight and I already fought Brett (Rogers when) he came off a loss. I don't want to keep doing that. Werdum was a legitimate winner from the fight (with Emelianenko). He's the No. 2 of Strikeforce, so I believe I should fight Werdum. If he's still injured (in 2011), then I'll fight Fedor because he's still a worthy opponent, and I've challenged him for a year."

Overeem said if and when the fight does happen, he won’t be opposed to drug testing. In fact – while pointing out he’s never failed a commission-administered test – Overeem said he doesn’t even oppose more stringent, Olympic-style regulation, as long as it applies to MMA fighters across the board, not just ones who suddenly look like overgrown action figures. (Ed note: I added that last part).

The champion reiterated that he has no personal beef with Fedor, but still doesn’t like M-1 Global, whose representatives he referred to as “the Russians.”

“I mean, Fedor is a nice guy,” Overeem said. “I know Fedor personally from the Pride days, and we even worked out a couple of times together. He came down to Holland. He was a nice, humble guy. Nothing bad to be said about him. But the management – ugh. They're just hard people to deal with. Ask (UFC president) Dana White. Ask (Strikeforce CEO) Scott Coker. They don't like to deal with the Russians."

Alright, this is just ridiculous at this point. I don't care what anyone says, you will never convince me Fedor is the best ever...and this kinda shit here is why. And now Overeem seems to be putting himself into that category as well by refusing to fight Fedor "unless he wins again" which as we know may mean it won't happen since Fedor only has one fight left on his Strikeforce deal, after which I'm not so sure Coker will want to deal with M-1 ever again.

Now I'm not totally blaming Fedor's constant refusal to fight the best guys one him, as it's clearly M-1 Global not really believing he's as good as they say he is, and they think he'll lose. As such, I will never even consider Fedor to be the G.O.A.T. unless he fights Overeem and at least some of the top guys in UFC. A saying people on these boards are all to familiar with is to be the man you have to beat the man, and Werdum is just not as good as a lot of guys out there and even he beat Fedor even if it was just a rookie mistake.

As for Overeem, he should have just fought Fedor when he found out Werdum was out for awhile. I certainly think Werdum has earned himself a shot at the title but fact is he can't fight currently. I think Strikeforce has to make one of those two fights happen as early as Overeem can be ready after the K-1 Grand Prix.

 

[Rayne]

Everyone loses in MMA. It's pretty much a rule of the sport that eventually, someone's going to slip in an underhand right, wobble you, and finish the fight in some fashion. It's just the way fights go. (Or, in this case, jump right into the guard of a great BJJ artist. OK, not quite a fluke mistake on Fedor's part.)

The talk about Fedor being the greatest is a bit premature. A *lot* premature, and I have my doubts. He is very impressive in the cage- I've watched him strike people from angles that you'd expect from a bantamweight match in the WEC. But bear in mind he picked up that moniker while the UFC's heavyweight division was utter shit. People were calling Fedor the greatest while Tim Sylvia was in his most recent reign as UFC champion.

Now, UFC's bulked up its heavyweight resume. Brock Lesnar is overhyped, but he's still a talent. Cain Velasquez matches up sizewise and stylewise very well with Fedor- that'd be a matchup I'd LOVE to see. Fedor's one of the best, but now, there's reasonable deliberation to be made.

Overeem is the champion for an organization that doesn't seem to require its fighters to defend their belts, lest they attract UFC interest and force Strikeforce to hold yet another tournament. For all his talk about M-1, he has a point there. M-1 Global demanding to co-promote with UFC was one of the biggest laughs in MMA over the past few years. But what have you been doing in the meantime, Alistair? He fought Brett Rogers for that championship (oddly enough, right after Rogers had lost to Fedor), and the other recognizable name in his last three fights is James Thompson, a guy most famous for having his ear busted open by that utterly unstoppable MMA force, Kimbo Slice.

Fedor was money so long as he stayed unbeaten. (No one really counts that illegal strike stoppage to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.) Now that he's lost, it's not the "OMG, fight Fedor to prove yourself!" fight that it once was.

 

[Dressler]

Honestly this whole Overeem vs Fedor thing has gone on so fucking long that I don't care anymore. I don't even want to see them fight anymore. It's dull, its a game of chicken and, lets be honest, we're playing with two chickens. One day M1-Global says lets go with the fight, the next Overeem says lets go, but have we not noticed they only say lets fight each other when the other one says no? This is honestly boring as fuck. Strikeforce should of made this fight a long time ago. Now its just bullshit.

If Strikeforce ever makes this fight, it wont be that "Finally we see two great fighters going at it for a title, this is going to be awesome", it'll be "Finally, fuck.", and that's it, no excitement, no "I can't wait to see what happens", just "get it the fuck over with and move the fuck on".

 

[Via Armbar]

Both sides are just pissing people off now. People understand by now that Fedor's management is shit, simple as that. Clearly they only want to drain the money of his talents for a couple more dollars in their pockets and it's such a shame that Fedor allows it. Fedor always has been and always will be my favorite fighter, he really is one of a kind. It's gotten to the point though where enough is enough and either he tells his management to fuck off and fights how he wants or he retires. I wouldn't want to see him give the game up for good, but really what's left for him if shit continues this way. There is two fights for him that should be made before any others: Overeem and Werdum. I would be happy to see either. Fedor is happy to fight either. Make it fucking happen.

Then we have Overeem. Didn't he just claim that Fedor and M1 was ducking him not too long ago? Now he doesn't want to fight Fedor because he isn't the number one HW anymore? Clearly Werdum is the safer bet for Overeem at this point even after the win over Fedor. Some people consider Werdum to be the number one heavyweight in the world since he beat the previously ranked number one. Makes sense even though I disagree. Really though, can people see him beating Brock? Or Dos Santos? We all know how that fight turned out. Overeem wants Fabricio because it's a safer fight and will put him in the number two spot if he were to beat him.

I really don't know if we will ever see this fight, which is a shame. There's also the whole Olympic level blood testing thing. The way I see it is like this: it would be similar to claiming to be sober but denying a breathalyzer.

 

[jmt225]

Well, I would have to agree that both are in the wrong.

Overeem has a lot of fair points about M-1 and Strikeforce, but the fact of the matter is... the best fighter to ever exist called him out by name. Fedor, a guy who has NEVER done such a thing, said he wants to fight Overeem. Is it a few months too late? Yes, it is, but he still said it, and Overeem should have stepped to the plate and showed the World whether or not he is truly one of the best Heavyweights today.

However, Overeem wants to stray away, fight K-1, maybe fight Fedor's far inferior brother in some no name promotion (which Overeem could end up losing), and then fight Werdum. That's just... meh. His reasoning as I said makes sense and is logical, but at the end of the day, man, it just looks like he's backing out of a fight that he's been asking for for a couple of years now. It makes him look chickenshit, bottom line.

As far as Fedor... a little too late, man. He should have been called out Overeem instead of fighting a bum like Brett Rogers and then someone like Werdum.

All that said, I definitely have high hopes for this fight to happen, for Fedor to win, and for Fedor to get a rematch with Werdum and avenge that loss. It just kind of sucks that we'll perhaps have to watch him fight Big Silva first before any of this can happen.