If Alistair Overeem’s words are congruent to the radius of his arms, then we would all have concussions right about now. After UFC 122, Dana White made a comment regarding Alistair Overeem not being ranked in the top ten heavyweights in MMA. If you’ve been hibernating under a rock for the past two days (or your mother’s basement), then you probably missed the single quote that made the entire MMA community picket down the streets of this imaginary MMA city we all live in. Now BloodyElbow has translated an interview from the Dutch site, MixFight.nl, where Alistair Overeem responds to Dana White’s claim that he’s not ranked as a top ten heavyweight in MMA.
“First of all he was telling that I didn’t fought anybody in the top 10, that’s not entirely true. When I defended my title against Brett Rogers, Rogers was considered top 10 after he defeated a former number 2 or 3 fighter Arlovski. I was not in the top 10 at the time and when I defeated Brett Rogers I enter the virtual rankings. Now everybody is saying that Brett Rogers shouldn’t have been in the top 10 in the first place but that’s the same as saying Brock doesn’t deserve a spot on number two. After what Cain did to Brock it’s silly to give Brock a top 5 spot, but that’s my opinion. He’s still a good fighter but having a 5-2 record and almost lost to Carwin and having wins over Herring, Couture and Mir (which he lost to as well) is not something that I’m very impressed about. I’m not going to call the media stupid like Dana but let me put it this way; how can a real M.M.A. insider put a Brock Lesnar above Fedor Emelianenko or even JDS. The fact of the matter is I like that people are debating the rankings but I don’t take them that seriously.”
“I’m not going to make my own top 10 because that will create just more room for the debate and that’s not necessary. People have to define first which criteria comes into play when creating a ranking system. Some people use only their last fight and what opposition they have fought. Other people look at skill set, talent, way of fighting and popularity. Now people tend to use both criteria and therefore you have ranking that can be heavily debated. That’s why Dana White is saying that I don’t belong in the top 10 because he doesn’t take in account my K-1 fights and doesn’t think that beating one top 10 fighter is good enough for entering the ranking. On the other hand you have Bas Rutten that says that I’m the number one heavyweight in the world. He uses my experience, potential, skill set and the way I finished fights against opposition that is not considered top 10. He also knows that my striking is improved very much and therefore uses my K-1 experience. So let’s say that the truth is somewhere in the middle. I’m fully aware that I have to prove myself, I know I can defeat anybody so it’s my job to prove it to my fans and to my doubters.”
Perhaps my previous analogy of Overeem winning the K-1 GP and being the Strikeforce heavyweight champion was somewhat off. It would appear that it’s more like David Bowie winning a Grammy for Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and then being awarded an Academy Award for his role in Labryrinth — and both of those scenarios should have occurred. [Source]
