Fighters Only

Issue 154

May 2017

This is Overeem's 72nd fight in MMA & kickboxing, but his 19th MMA knockout win, 12 of which were by kicks and knees.

It’s no mean feat to dent Mark Hunt’s iron chin. Sure, it’s been done before, but it’s always taken some weapons-grade flesh and bone to separate the ‘Super Samoan’ from his senses.

At UFC 209, it was the clinch of mass destruction from the most devastating knee striker in MMA that got it done.

‘The Reem’s sig. had an 78% strike accuracy in this fight and with a strike accuracy of 73.9% overall; Overeem is the best in the UFC.

This is also the 1st MMA fight between the two former K-1 World Grand Prix winners. The last time these two fought, in 2008, Alistair Overeem took no chances.

As well as having a granite chin, Hunt hits as hard as anyone that has ever strapped on 4oz gloves, so ‘The Reem’ took him down and submitted him in double-quick time.

This time, we got the stand-up battle we deserved from a pair of elite strikers.

Hunt’s leg was bloodied from a nasty cut, which painted his opponent’s body red with every kick between brain-shaking punches.

There were 23 sig. clinch strikes by Overeem. Hunt was too damaged by Overeem’s knees to the body in the first ten minutes. Something had to give in the final five.

It finally did when the Dutchman imposed his clinch game against the fence, opened things up with a left elbow and found the space to unleash his deadliest weapons; One knee found the chin, then one met the side of Hunt’s head to fell him like a eucalyptus tree.

Overeem may have failed to dethrone Stipe Miocic and win the title last year, but on this evidence, he’s far from finished as a threat in the heavyweight division.