OVEREEM DRAWS WERDUM FOR 1ST STRIKEFORCE DEFENSE

[Il Loco]

Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem (29-11) will defend his title for the first time in a rematch with Pride and UFC veteran Fabricio Werdum (11-4-1) at "Carano vs. Cyborg" on Aug. 15.

Strikeforce VP of Communications Mike Afromowitz confirmed the news Monday. It is the third confirmed title fight on the summer card.

The 29 year-old champion's future remained a question mark since a brawl in a Dutch nightclub took him from a title defense against Brett Rogers at "Shields vs. Lawler" in June. He spent all of last year fighting for DREAM, where he racked up two victories before multiple fouls caused a no contest in a fight with Mirko Cro Cop. He last appeared in November, submitting veteran Gary Goodridge in his home country.

Overeem first tangled with Werdum in May 2006 during the first round of Pride's open weight tournament. Overeem lost in the second round by kimura.

Werdum, 31, was released by the UFC following a TKO loss to Junior Dos Santos at UFC 90 last October. The highly decorated grappler signed to Strikeforce in April.

“I am very confident,” said Werdum. “I have trained my whole life for this moment. Coming in as the challenger in a title match is a huge motivating factor for me. Whether the fight is against Alistair or another fighter doesn’t necessarily matter to me. What matters is that I am fighting the champion.”

[marcelt]

Get even with Werdum!

[Ivo C.]

It's going to be an interessting fight.
I don't think Werdum can stand and strike with Overeem.
Let's wait and we shall see

[Tony]

Staande wordt Werdum afgeslacht... (ook al heeft ie zijn bokswerk verbeterd)
Op de grond zou Werdum het snel moeten kunnen afmaken... Maar ik denk dat ie dan al een paar knieën van Overeem geslikt heeft en dat deze keer de uitkomst anders zal zijn dan de vorige keer.

[chief108]

wordt vast een interessante pot
geef ze iig gelijke kansen om dit te winnen
dus....
we zien wel wat er gebeurd!

[dirk5]

oejoej, het verhaal krijgt nog een staartje:

Brett Rogers' Manager Issues New Allegations Re: Alistair Overeem's Bitchassness

(One of the few times when shucking and/or ducking would have been the better career move.)

Well, this train has pulled into the station right on time. Not more than a couple hours after Strikeforce confirmed that Alistair Overeem would defend his heavyweight title against Fabricio Werdum, thus screwing over undefeated big man Brett Rogers, Rogers’ trainer/manager, Mike Reilly, has already responded exactly the way you probably expected him to:


"I don't think Overeem was ever planning on fighting Brett," Reilly said. "I think Overeem is afraid of Brett. He's afraid of a big striker who is going to knock him out. ... I don't think anyone is going to admit that, but I'm not going to shy away from it. He's had two opportunities to fight Brett but he hasn't taken either of [them]. … if I was Overeem, I would avoid Brett too. It's a horrible f***ing fight for Overeem."

At least we got that over with.

So here’s the question we have to ask ourselves: is Overeem really scared of Brett Rogers, so much so that he decided to make his first title defense against someone who already has a victory over him instead of facing the dreaded Grimm? Probably not. Yes, Rogers is 10-0, but his list of opponents isn’t terribly prestigious until you get to his last fight, which no one expected him to win right up until the moment he bum-rushed Arlovski and shocked the world.

What’s more likely is that Overeem sees Rogers as a dangerous, but still relatively unknown opponent and decided that there’s not enough upside to justify the risk. If he beats Werdum (which Rogers’ manager says he doesn’t expect him to do) he can say he avenged a loss. And who doesn’t like saying that?

But in case you’re in danger of taking whatever Rogers’ manager says too seriously, we should note that he also added this warning to undersized heavyweights in general:


"If you are under 250 pounds right now, just forget about fighting Brett Rogers because all that is going to happen is that you are going to get your head spun around."

When reached for comment Fedor Emelianenko responded, via a translator, ‘Brett who? How did you get this number?’

[54321]

haha..ja overeem is bang om door rogers ko geslagen te worden. maar hij is niet bang om met de twee beste k1 vechters de ring in te stappen op hun regels.

[TOON]

haha..ja overeem is bang om door rogers ko geslagen te worden. maar hij is niet bang om met de twee beste k1 vechters de ring in te stappen op hun regels.

x2

[Fr3ddy]

When reached for comment Fedor Emelianenko responded, via a translator, ‘Brett who? How did you get this number?’

LOL

[Tony]

Tuurlijk kan Rogers hem KO'en.. Hij kan ook Fedor ko'en met die semtex in zijn poten... Maar toch zie ik het anders gaan. Ik denk dat Rogers binnen een minuut op zijn rug ligt.. En vanuit daar krijgt ie last van zijn ribben omdat Overeem zijn knieen ertegenaan plant.

Na een tijdje te zijn afgeslacht (soort overeem-kharitanov revival) krijgt Rogers een submission te verwerken.

exit rogers

[dirk5]

Rogers had gewoon recht op die partij? of is dat te snel na elkaar?

Zowel Rogers als Strikeforce wilden deze partij uitstellen om hem meer te hypen...