M-1 Global has made their choice, but Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is not on board. MMAFighting has reported that Overeem is not interested in fighting Fedor Emelianenko. Instead, he will enter the K-1 World Grand Prix for the second-straight year.
Despite not being interested in fighting Overeem before losing to Fabricio Werdum, Emelianenko’s management team, M-1 Global, released a press release entitle “We Want Overeem.” The loss was Emelianenko’s first defeat in almost 10 years. Emelianenko’s camp chose to the fight with Werdum even though Overeem held the promotion’s title.
Overeem has indicated that he would defend his Strikeforce heavyweight championship against or participate in the K-1 tournament. Werdum announced he would be out of action for a long time due to an elbow injury.
In last year’s K-1 World Grand Prix, Overeem advanced to the semifinals with a devastating knockout of Ewerton Teixeira. In the semifinals, kickboxing’s bad boy Badr Hari eliminated Overeem. The Strikeforce heavyweight champion’s kickboxing record currently stands at 6-4 with highlighting victories over Hari and Peter Aerts.
On the MMA side, Overeem has not lost since Sergei Khaitonov stopped him in 2007. He has now won eight-straight fights. In his last fight, he defended his Strikeforce title for the first time by knocking out Brett Rogers. Overeem holds quality wins over Paul Buentello, Vitor Belfort and Mark Hunt.