Quote of the Day 2: Alistair Overeem Not Defending His Strikeforce Title Is "Ridiculous and Cheapens the Belt"

Until Dream stops paying him truckloads of money to fight subpar competition I don’t think anything will change.

If people deny Overeem has great talent they are just dumb but at the same time the people that make the argument that Overeem is a top 10 hw for beating Thompson and and Fujita and Sylvester and Goodrige are just insane.

If/When Overeem begins to beat top guys I have no problem moving him up but come on Kimbo beat Thompson is Kimbo top 10?No. Top 25? No. Top 50? No.

I think Overeem should be top 20 just because of the lack of depth in the hw division but top 10 at this point, absoluetely not.

Several good points so far. The two main points are (i) Strikeforce never had a legit heavyweight division until the last six months or so and (ii) the pay on a Strikeforce contract he signed 2+ years is likely terrible compared to the pay he’s getting in K-1 and Japan.

For all the complaining MMA fans do about fighter pay, isn’t it a bit hypocritical to bad mouth the guy for cashing in? He hasn’t said he won’t fight in the US, just that he has other obligations… obligations which Strikeforce opened the door for when they decided to sign a non-exclusive contract, which is only one of many.

If I was a betting man (and I’m not), I would wager we’ll see Ubereem-Fedor in Dream, and everyone will talk about how Alistair is avoiding the piss test by fighting in Japan. If Fedor wins, Overeem is overrated. If Fedor loses, it’s the “horse meat” that isn’t tested for over in the land of the rising sun.

Hell, even if the fight happens in the US, the claim will be that he just waited to cycle off properly, which is something Barnett apparently never learned to do (no bashing, just stating what seems to be acknowledged fact).

So, what are the incentives for Overeem to fight Fedor in the US for the Strikeforce title, except to satisfy fickle American MMA fans for likely little compensation (relative to Japanese MMA and K-1) who will accuse him of juicing win, lose, or draw?

When did he sign it? I used the 2+ years ago figure because of the standard comments and the fact that the Buentello fight was in late 2007 (November 16, 2007, according to Sherdog Fight Finder). After doing some research, my guess is that he signed earlier when he fought Belfort.

As for juicing, my guess is that he – like a lot of other fighters – is on it, but my keyboard hunch doesn’t mean sh*t. As many have said, it’s ignorance that leads to positive tests, like Royce’s crazy levels when he was popped.

And everyone should keep in mind that the Strikeforce HW division basically sucked until very recently, so there hasn’t been a rush for Overeem to defend that belt. And while his MMA fights have been against sub-par opponents, his K-1 fights have been against the best.

In all honesty, I’m not an Overeem fan and have only seen a handful of his fights, mostly in K-1. But the hate and accusations are beyond ridiculous.

if Strikeforce wanted to offer him a new contract they could. I know the UFC update contracts all the time, as Dana has mention on a few Interviews in the past that they renegotiate mid contract with fighters.

So why doesn’t Coker say “Yo Ali, ya frikin Dutch bastard, come fight for me and give this belt some legitimacy it’s been two years and we’re starting to look silly now.”

I wish a Strikeforce contract got leaked like Randy’s UFC one did. It would be hilarious to see all the loopholes in it, because seemingly there is plenty.

I’m still a newb.