The Rise of The Ubereem

The year was 2002 and another fresh faced kickboxer had rolled off the Dutch K1 Conveyor Belt straight into Japan's Pride Fighting Championship. All went to script, the foreigner enters the proving ground and announces his arrival via devastating KO. The world welcomed Alistair Overeem - what followed was knockout after knockout as Overeem faced under-matched opponents one after the other - each leaving the ring suitably concussed and sorry. Say what you like about Pride's much maligned match making but it sure was entertaining to see Wanderlei, Cro-Cop, Shogun et al smashing the head off the poor unfortunates that they were put up against. It made superstars out of these guys and almost 10 years later Zuffa and well myself rely on these highlight reel demolitions for hype!

Overeem was eventually derailed by a classic Chuck Liddell right hand at Pride Total Elimination 2003 and despite then winning three on the bounce eventually slipped again losing a decision to Little Nog at Pride 29.

Overeem had reached a crossroads in this early stage of his career - he had neither the elite grappling skills nor the one-punch knock out power to take himself to the next level. Choices? Move to Curitiba for 6 years and become a noble student of Jiu Jitsu or .... well .... get on the weights?

When I say weights what I really mean is lorry loads of horse meat (yes horse meat!) and train loads of steroids trainig. Overeeem was no more - The world heralded the rise of the Ubereem!

Ahem! I shall demonstrate this graphically.

From this grand fellow:

To the 2010 Half Cyborg/Half Horse Meat Beast - THE UBEREEEM!!!!

Honestly you can't even hit him now - it's hillarious - see last night's "performance" - I think I'll start praying to the Ubereem now. He's the future.

Walking The Walk

Have you ever watched two fighters seething at each other in interviews or at press conferences and wondered if they really mean all that they say? Do they really believe all that they claim and do they truly dislike each other that much? I mean, I've heard fighters insulting wives (both current and past) mothers (both living and dead) and even children - Tyson once said he'd like to eat Lennox Lewis' children once! Surely it's all hype? They're actually serious?

Well it seems that sometimes they are.... sometimes.... they trade insults, then trade punches and then a full ten years later when one would assume the dust had settled and with the physical and verbal wounds healed they are still deep down gunning for each other. This was exactly the case when Trevor Berbick decided to show up at a post-fight Larry Holmes' press conference. Holmes had just KO'd Tim Anderson in the first round and wasn't in the mood for his old foe Berbick.

What followed was Berbick interrupting what was a truly mundane presser - shouting down Holmes and accusing a mutual lady friend "Jenny from Jacksonville" of ruining his marriage. It really could not get more bizarre, really.... except....it hella-does! It spills out into the car park, where Holmes - in full view of a dozen police officers runs across two car roofs and dropkicks Berbick WWF style in the neck.

Don't believe me?