Despite all the anticipation, tonight's fight between Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum turned into a disappointing fight you'd expect to see in early mixed martial arts (MMA), when fighters trained in only one discipline and did everything they could to take their fights into their realm of success.
From early on in the fight, it was obvious that Werdum wanted nothing to do with Overeem's striking. However, Werdum actually did find some success when he was forced to stand with the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion.
After being stuffed easily on several double leg takedown attempts, Werdum began trying to bait Overeem to join him on the ground. At one point, Werdum actually pleaded with his hands clasped for Overeem to dive into his guard.
Eventually, Werdum was forced to pull guard in desperation. The few times Werdum was successful in dragging Overeem into his guard, he was unable to mount any type of offense from his back, which may have ended up being the deciding factor on the scorecards.
In fact, Werdum out-landed Overeem 69-48 in total strikes according to CompuStrike. While Overeem unquestionably landed a greater number of power strikes, Werdum was able to hold his own against one of the most respected strikers in the heavyweight division.
By pulling guard, Werdum showed that he would rather lose the fight by desperately attempting submissions for 15 minutes than risk standing with Overeem for any period of time. If Werdum had attempted to stand with Overeem, the outcome of this fight may have been very different.
While Overeem is the more technical and powerful striker than Werdum, he has shown a suspect chin over the course of his career. Seven of Overeem's 11 career losses in MMA, and three of his four losses in kickboxing came as a result of stoppages due to strikes.
Werdum may not be a great striker by any means, but he was always one clean shot away from forcing Overeem to quit like his brother, Valentijn Overeem, had earlier in the night. Werdum was having some success with knees from the clinch when the fight was standing, but he decided not to continue to exploit that success throughout the fight.
Werdum knows himself better than anyone else though, so maybe he did make the right decision to desperately try to take this fight to the ground. Perhaps Werdum would have gotten knocked out if he continued to stand with Overeem, but at least he would have actually forced Overeem to beat him rather than beating himself.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter here.
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