Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem is the current heavyweight champion for the Strikeforce MMA promotion. However, Overeem decided to forgo a defence of his Strikeforce title in order to focus on K1 kickboxing. After his showing at the K1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final 16 card in Seoul, Korea he seemed to have made the correct decision.
Overeem’s opponent was Ben “The Guvner” Edwards. Edwards’ last fight was at the K1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Canberra final. Edwards won the tournament title in that bout by defeating Paul Slowinski via technical knockout at the 1:24 mark of the first round. Edwards walked away from that tournament with one first round knockout and two first round TKOs.
The total time he spent in the ring at the tourney was 3:28. With that short amount of time in the ring Edwards now holds the record for fastest victory in a K1 tournament. Entering his bout with Overeem, Edward’s had a kickboxing record of 30-7-2.
For his part Overeem entered the fight with a kickboxing record of 7-4 and an MMA record of 33-11. In addition to holding the Strikeforce heavyweight belt, Overeem is the No. 8 ranked heavyweight on the USA Today consensus heavyweight MMA rankings list.
Overeem’s kickboxing career is fairly young, but it took a huge leap forward in the respect department in September 2009 when he defeated three-time K1 champion Peter Aerts by unanimous decision. Overeem made it to the semi-finals of the 2009 K1 World Grand Prix before losing by TKO to Badr Hari.
When the bell rang to start their fight Edwards engaged Overeem right away and threw a flurry of punches, but the focused Overeem shrugged off the blows fairly easily.
Close to one minute into the fight, Overeem found his opening and dropped Edwards with a hard right. Edwards regained his feet and came right back at Overeem. Again the strikes of Edwards had no effect and with 1:31 left in round one Overeem delivered one of the hardest overhand rights that I have ever seen.
The punch dropped Edwards immediately to the ring floor. Somehow Edwards was able to stand, but not for long as another right dropped him for the third time. With that third knockdown Overeem scored the TKO victory at the 2:08 mark of round one.
With the victory Overeem moves on to the final eight. The K1 World Grand Prix 2010 champion will be crowned at the conclusion of that event, which takes place on Dec. 11.
Alexis Bledel Ali Campoverdi Ali Larter Alice Dodd Alicia Keys
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