Becomes First Fighter to Hold Major MMA and K-1 World GP Titles
NEW YORK (Dec. 12, 2010) – STRIKEFORCE Heavyweight Champion Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem of The Netherlands made history on Saturday by winning the annual eight-man, single elimination K-1 World Grand Prix Championship in Japan, thus making him the first fighter in history to simultaneously hold a major MMA and K-1 Grand Prix title.
On Saturday, the 6-foot-5, 30-year-old Overeem won three fights at the one night, eight-man K-1 Grand Prix, the most prestigious tournament in kickboxing. He capped off a winning night by scoring a first-round (1:07) TKO in the finals over K-1 legend Peter Aerts, a three-time champion of the tournament.
In the semifinal round of the event, Overeem produced a similar result, registering a first round TKO over Gokhan Saki (2:33). In the opening tournament round, he scored a unanimous decision over Tyrone Sprong.
Overeem has been unstoppable in the sport of MMA, not suffering a loss in over three years. On Nov. 16, 2007, he became the first STRIKEFORCE MMA heavyweight champion in history, crushing Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello with knee strikes to the body in the second round (3:42) of their matchup at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Overeem returned to STRIKEFORCE action last May 15, scoring a first-round (3:40) TKO over Brett “The Grim” Rogers at Scottrade Center in St. Louis to bring his career MMA record up to 33-11.
