UFC 141: BROCK LESNAR VS. ALISTAIR OVEREEM

VIDEO: UFC

BY: MMA WRITER ANTHONY L. GONZALEZ

UFC 141 finishes the year very strong with a stacked fight card and one of the best main events in years. Alistair Overeem (35-11-1) takes on former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesnar (5-2) for the number one contender spot in the UFC Heavyweight Division. This is battle of two MMA greats and also some of the world’s best athletes in their prime.

31 year old Alistair Overeem is a very experienced fighter, born in the Hounslow, England and fights out of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He has been competing in combat sports for a very long time and turned pro as a kickboxer when he was just 17. He made his debut in 2002 in Pride and has turned into one of the best heavyweights in the world. Since 2002, he has competed all around the world and has held world titles in K1, Dream and Strikeforce. This fight will be his UFC debut.

Alistair Overeem is a very well rounded fighter who posseses superior standups skills with his Pro Kickboxing background. He also has a background in Judo and Submission Grappling. He started training martial arts as a teenager under mma legend Bas Rutten, Joop Kasteel and from his brother Valentijn. Alistair has victories over many mma greats, which include Fabricio Werdum, Vitor Belfort, Sergei Kharitonov, Bret Rodgers and Igor Vovchanchyn. He also has not lost a fight since 2007 and is undefeated in his last 11 fights. His last loss came by KO in a rematch against Sergei Kharitonov in K1 back in 2007.  In his last fight, he defeated Fabricio Werdum in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament, but he was cut from Strikeforce this year for contractual reasons.

34 year old Brock Lesnar who is from Webster, South Dakota, is one of the world’s most gifted and strongest athletes . Brock has won a NCCA Division 1 National Wrestling Championship in 2000. He also has been selected to the NFL and played for the Minnesota Vikings back in 2004. He is well known by most fans because he has won a WWE World title and he has held the UFC World Heavyweight Title.

Personally, I amazed with all those accomplishments and I am very impressed with his amatuer wrestling accomplishments. I am most impressed with him winning the UFC title in only his 5th career mma fight. Whether you like him or not, Brock has overcame so much adversity and came back twice from a serious illness. He had a life threatning illness which was discovered as a serious case of diverticulitis, an intestinal disorder. He had surgery that removed a large part of his colon in early 2011 and it is amazing he is back so soon.

Brock Lesnar’s mma career highlights include victories over Frank Mir, Shane Carwin and winning the UFC Heavyweight Title over UFC legend Randy Couture back in 2008. He later lost his championship to Cain Velasquez by KO, back in October 2010.

Brock Lesnar is still a developing martial artist that specializes in wrestling and brute strength. He comes into this fight as an underdog and it will be interesting to see if he is back at 100 percent.

Alistair Overeem needs to keep this fight on his feet and be aware of Brock’s amazing double leg takedowns. He has to watch Brock’s hips and immediately sprawl or use underhooks to stop his shots. If he is taken down, he will lose. Brock has a viscous ground and pound and has the abilty to beat you with his powerful hammer fist punches or he can choke you out. If Alistair stays on his feet and uses his standup, he should be able to knockout Lesnar. I doubt this fight will go the distance.

I am going to be bold and choose Brock to win by a ground and pound or by a choke from the top position. Either way, this will be an exciting and interesting fight at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner will be fighting Junior Dos Santos for the UFC title.

This will be the last UFC pay-per-view card to feature preliminary fights on Spike TV. The start time of the pay-per-view card has been moved to 10 p.m. ET, after a run of events that started at 9 p.m. ET.

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