RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
Scott Coker, and God to a lesser extent, are just bound and determined to make sure Alistair Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko never get it on. Well, maybe just maybe, Nobuyuki Sakakibara can accomplish what Scott Coker and GOD HIMSELF were too stupid to organize back in Strikeforce – he can sign Alistair Overeem to fight Fedor Emelianen…
Bah – who am I kidding. Fedor wants nothing to do with Overeem, Overeem wants a UFC title shot, and he’ll have it written into his contract that he gets the winner of the UFC 196 main event this summer. Of course, as of this writing, I fully expect the winner of the UFC 196 main event to be Jared Rosholt after Cain Velasquez blows out his, let’s say right quadriceps muscle, and after Johny Hendricks weighs enough that even Ben Askren is left speechless.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
I’m assuming the UFC is going to resign him. I can’t imagine that they let him go after this. He’s so close to a title shot and they won’t want to let some other company have a guy that they can claim is the best in the world. That’s not true of course, as I would pick UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum to beat Overeem, but still, a company could hype that.
So, let’s just assume that Overeem stays with the UFC. I wait and see what happens with the Andrei Arlovski-Stipe Miocic fight in a few weeks and take it from there. If Arlovski wins, he gets the next title shot and Overeem has to win one more fight in a #1 contenders fight. If Miocic wins, I’m fine with Overeem getting the next title shot. It doesn’t take much in the heavyweight division to get a title shot, and I think Overeem has done enough to get one.
BRAD WALKER, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
He’ll hang around in UFC they’re going to offer him more money and keep him on the roster he’s a name worth holding onto and he just beat the former heavyweight champion with a funk nasty left to the chin. I’d like to see Reem fight the loser of Arlovski and Miocic that just makes the most sense for him right now.
DAYNE FOX, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
I stated in my Rapid Fire report that Overeem probably needed one more win to get the title shot and under normal circumstances I would stand by that. When I stated that, though, I was unaware that Overeem’s contract was up. If the UFC wants to keep him around, they might need to promise him a title shot. Not a bad time for the Demolition Man to test free agency. Overeem wants to stay as he realizes for his legacy as an all-time great would need to be solidified with a UFC championship. Thus he will use his free agency status to leverage himself into a title shot, which the UFC will be fine with as Stipe Miocic and Andrei Arlovski (who fight at UFC 195) are less marketable than he is. Don’t be surprised to see Overeem fighting against the winner of Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez at UFC 200.
[Alistair Overeem art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Leave a Reply