Alistair Overeem Holds Off Strikeforce With K-1 Deal
K-1 announced that Alistair Overeem, the reigning Strikeforce heavyweight champion, will participate in the 2009 World Grand Prix Final 16.
Does that sound more than a tad fishy, considering Overeem’s last fight for Strikeforce was in November of 2007? In that tilt, he beat Paul Buentello to win the belt, and since then, Overeem has fought exclusively for DREAM and K-1 in Japan and hasn’t defended the stateside belt.
He was scheduled to defend the championship against Fabricio Werdum on the Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg card, but pulled out of the fight due to a “hand injury” he sustained during a bar fight he jumped in with his brother.
Overeem is now set to face Peter Aerts on the September 26 Final 16 card. Should he defeat Aerts, he’ll return to K-1 in December to participate in the Grand Prix Final.
With his K-1 commitments, Overeem can’t put together his first championship defense for Strikeforce until sometime in 2010, and that poses serious problems for Strikeforce.
Does anyone else find it odd that Overeem is fighting in Japan? Last time we checked, the Japanese promotions seemed kind of lax in their attitude toward steroid use. Not saying, but you know, just saying…
At some point, Scott Coker will have to strip Overeem of the belt or put together a Fedor Emelianenko (or, in a worst-case scenario for Coker, Brett Rogers) fight.
In any case, Overeem is the fly in the ointment, and Coker will likely have to address that issue soon to maintain the momentum he generated in signing Emelianenko.
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