Alistair Overeem vs. Sam Hoger In The Works For Shooto
Strikeforce heavyweight champion, Alistair Overeem, is likely to return to MMA action soon, against former “The Ultimate Fighter” contestant Sam Hoger in the Japanese promotion Shooto. Overeem was twice schedule to defend his Strikeforce belt over the summer, but a hand injury suffered in a bar fight forced both match ups to be scrapped. He has been absent from MMA, competing only in K-1 since November of 2008. According to a report by InsideFights, Overeem and Hoger have verbally agreed to face one another, though the official bout agreements have yet to be signed.
Overeem has compiled a record of 29-11-1 in his MMA career, while also earning a 4-3 record in K-1. In his last seven MMA bouts Overeem has gone 5-1-1 with the only loss coming via knock out form Sergei Kharitonov in September, 2007. Among his victories during that stretch are wins over Paul Buantello, Mark Hunt, and Gary Goodridge.
Hoger was last in action in January of this year, where he earned a submission victory over Johnathan Ivey at URC – Urban Rumble Championship, the second of two consecutive victories. Prior to his two most recent victories, Hoger had been on a three fight losing streak including losses to Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida in his final two UFC bouts.
Pictured: Alistair Overeem
Tags: Alistair Overeem, Sam Hoger
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Overeem must want to ease back into MMA because he’s going to murder that thief Sam Hoger.
Sam Hoger, that dude from TUF 1 that stole everyone’s shhit???
At least he beat Bobby Southworth….
I forgot about that, thanks for reminding me, I hope he gets KOed bad.
Rank this one up there pretty high on the “I don’t give a….” list. Only thing I like is in Overeem’s 40 fights, only 3 have been decisions. But, I still don’t care about either of these dudes.
Overeem needs to fight Arlovski
He needs to defend his damn belt not fight sam hoger!
agreed strikeforce needs to strip him of the belt
a bar fight? and this is the guy who fedor will face for the belt? niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice
I hate to be the one to post this, and Lord knows I’m no expert on Alistair Overeem, Strikeforce, M-1 Global, K-1, or even hand injuries, but from my admittedly removed POV, Overeem seems afflicted by a case of Cung Le syndrome, in that he seems able to perform all other actions save defending his Strikeforce HW title.
What is Scott Coker to do here, create ANOTHER Interim title and sign an Interim title fight and just wait Overeem out? Or release a statement invalidating Overeem’s title, and announce a new title has been created and a new title match soon to follow?
This sort of thing is almost unimaginable and definitely inexcusable at this stage of our sport’s development IMO.
And how is it that this hand injury is SO bad that he can’t fight MMA in Strikeforce, but K-1 and Shooto and DREAM are just fine?
I’ve read some stuff indicating that Overeem isn’t all that happy with the M-1 Global/Strikeforce situation, and if thats true then the man is certainly entitled to his opinion on the matter, and of course free to work wherever he can find gainful employment within his chosen profession.
However, if it IS true, then Overeem has a moral obligation to the sport, and probably some sort of legal/contractual obligation to Strikeforce, to either defend or surrender the title in a timely fashion.
As far as I can tell, it’s been 23 months with nary a title defense from Overeem. Now I understand that at least part of that time Strikeforce didn’t press the issue due to lack of a contender or whatever, and part of the time Overeem has begged off due to this “unique” hand injury, but 23 MONTHS?!
He’s almost making Cung Le look like a fighting champion in comparison, which is a sad state of Strikeforce affairs to say the VERY least.
I think when this thing reaches the 2 year mark, next month, Coker should call Overeem into his office and ask for either his signature on a fight contract against Fabricio Werdum [or whoever], or for Overeem to just leave the HW title on his desk and get the fu<k out of San Jose on the first flight back to Holland or Japan or wherever Overeem calls home these days.
Can any of you ever imagine a titleholder in the UFC showing Dana White a fraction of the disrespect Coker is inadvertently getting from guys like Cung Le and Overeem?
I know I can't…
Few things, Overeem was twice scheduled to defend of the summer, had to pull out the first time for broken hand, second time said hand got infected. Since then, there has been no mention of Strikeforce even trying to book him for a fight. His last K-1 bout was at the end of September, around six weeks after the August bout Overeem had to pull out of, which should be enough time for an infection to heal.
Also, remember Strikeforce’s last “major” (as in non-challengers) event was Cyborg v. Carano back on August 15th (the one that Overeem had to pull out of due to injury), their next “major” event is Fedor v. Rogers on November 7. Following the Fedor v. Rogers fight their next “major” is rumored to be set for December. How could he defend his belt between August 15 and now if they haven’t put on a major event for him to defend it on. And obviously Strikeforce is using the November 7 bout to build up Fedor.
I believe Overeem’s fight with Hoger is set for later this month, and from what I’ve seen, a turnaround to fight in December would be no big deal for Overeem. Who he might fight is up to Strikeforce, but he would likely be up to fighting then.
As far as Coker and having to deal with Overeem not defending, vs. Dana white not putting up with this, well, that’s why the UFC contracts are exclusive. If Strikeforce contracts were exclusive, Overeem wouldn’t be off fighting in K-1 all the time.
Overeem won’t even think about defending his Strikeforce title til 2010 most likely against the Fedor v Rogers winner… Thats just my opinion
I get what you’re saying Justin, I really do, and if we were talking about 6 or even 8 months, that would be one thing, but the timeframe is something like 5 weeks short of two years since Overeem won the Strikeforce HW belt, which was I believe mid-November, 2007.
Since then, Overeem has fought if memory serves 4 times for DREAM throughout 2008, and has fought twice this tear for K-1.
How bad can this hand injury be if he’s still fighting for another promotion?
IMO this situation is a disservice to MMA fans in general, Strikeforce fans in particular, and demonstrates that a serious issue exists within Strikeforce if they have so little control over their champions like Overeem and Cung Le, the latter of which at least FINALLY did the right thing and opted out of MMA and his title.
Maybe, just maybe, Scott Coker needs to take a long hard look at how he’s doing business, and possibly restructure some of his contracts to protect himself and his fans, not to mention the contending fighters within his organization, from vagabond champions like Overeem and Le in the future.
@ fr702 – while I agree with your assessment that Overeem won’t be defending his belt anytime soon, therein lies my point. It isn’t Overeem’s job to decide when he’ll defend his title, it’s his boss’s.
If Scott Coker says, “hey, dude, get your a$$ to San Jose by such and such date and be ready to fight Fabricio Werdum [or whoever]“, then Overeem should either do what he’s asked or surrender his belt, and not try to sell Coker on some sort of weirdly specific hand injury that allows him to fight in K-1 and Shooto but not in Strikeforce.
Or am I the only one who finds this situation completely ridiculous, as I did the Cung Le affair??
Well no your not the only one who takes issue with this sort of thing. My first impression upon reading this story was definitely along the same lines as what your saying. At the end of the day, however, its Scott Coker who runs the show. I can only come to two conclusions based on the limited info we have. The first being that he doesn’t have enough backbone to keep his employees on the job. Or (more realistically) that he’s trying to build up a legit heavyweight division and is letting Overeem chill while he ensures that there’s going to be some contenders to come for the belt and keep coming for the belt. I mean cmon dude they have what…five other heavyweights to their name? That makes up for just about one contender fight, one champion fight and then not much else to speak of. I think Cokers hands are tied here and right now he’s more focused on actually having a heavyweight division then he is setting up championship fights that will leave him with no contenders or way to establish contenders. Hence he is more focused on picking up talent like Bobby Lashley then he is having Overeem fight at the moment.
Jcohl,
Here’s the thing about Overeem. He won the belt against Buantello in November 2007, from what I can tell there was no real push in 2008 to have him defend because, lets face it, Strikeforce really didn’t have any one for him to defend against. Werdum was still with the UFC, Fedor with Affliction, Rogers with EliteXC, Arlovski with Affliction/EliteXC, etc. So who would he have defended against in 2008?
Strikeforce then went from November 2008 until April of 2009 without putting on one single event. They didn’t ask Overeem to fight on the April card. They held a major event in June (Lawler vs. Shields) and Overeem was supposed to be on it, but injured his hand in the bar fight. Then the next major event was Carano v. Cyborg which Overeems injury had gotten infected and he wasn’t going to be ready. (He was probably prevented from training due to the ongoing injuries.) Once he got healed up, he got back in the ring (6 weeks, which is long enough for even a broken bone to heal, let alone an infection. Plus, K-1 takes less intense training than MMA, obviously, so Overeem can likely have a shorter camp for K-1 fight), and made money to pay his doctor bills.
The next major Strikeforce card is Fedor v. Rogers, and as far as I can tell, Overeem wasn’t asked to participate in the card. I’m pretty sure that if Coker had done the right thing and given us Overeem v. Fedor instead of this bollocks mini tournament he’s doing Overeem would have probably been pretty happy to have a chance at Fedor.
My point is, you complain because he hasn’t defended in 23 months now, but if you take out the 5 months between November 2008 and April 2009 that Strikeforce didn’t hold any events, that’s only 18 months. Then you take out the time with his hand injury it’s 14, then you take out the time now where Strikeforce (I assume) hasn’t asked him to fight (leading to November) that’s 11 months, which is less than the time from him winning the belt to the time Strikeforce acquired the EliteXC fighters, giving them someone to actually have him defend against.
Can some blame be placed on him for getting in the bar fight in the first place and preventing the June and August scheduled fights, I suppose so, but the five months Strikeforce didn’t have any events cannot be counted against him, nor the 3 months (by Nov. 7) that Strikeforce hasn’t asked him to fight, nor the time that they had no one worth having him defend against.
I think dislike between Overeem and M-1 Global come form the conflict between Vadim Finkelstein (M1 Global) and Overeem’s manager and Golden Glory founder Bas Boon . Bas Boon doing everything to screw up M1 and I think this is the reason we don’t see Alistair in action under Strikeforce banner.
how dare you be logical
Sorry for trying
Weird, man. Just weird. How did this fight come about? Why is Overeem fighting a lower-tier LHW instead of a legit HW? So many questions.
Its gonna be a good match i think. I don’t see Hoger winning though..
if by good, you mean sucky.
Sam Hoger? Thats really all I have to say about that lol.
Strikeforce is F’n BS!
It should be MANDATORY that their Champions defend there titles! If they get injured they SHOULD be F’n obligated to defend there belt! Not go to some other promotion and fighting for the rather than defending their Championship. I think that lowers the credibilty of not only the Championship but the promotion as well……..
Here is what Scott Coker said, this is pulled from BE, HT: Kid Nate
“I’ve read all the blogs and statements about Golden Glory and what they’re saying, Alistair not honoring his contract,” said Coker. “That’s all stuff I call the National Enquirer gossip. We’re not going to respond to that. We know Alistair’s going to be fighting in Strikeforce. We have an agreement. The relationship is strong. They’re thankful that we’re letting them fight in Dream. But I still think Alistair is going to be a champion in Strikeforce that’s going to be a formidable opponent for either Fedor (Emelianenko) or Brett Rogers.”
Coker said his agreement with Overeem wasn’t beholden to other promotions, but based instead on professional courtesy.
“In the past, we’ve always used the K-1 agreement, and they fought for us because I asked K-1 or Dream or Pride at the time, can I use Vitor Belfort, can I use Alistair Overeem?” Coker continued. “And they said sure. Now, with the relationship with CBS and Showtime, we have direct contracts with Alistair that have nothing to do with Dream. He’s obligated to fight, it’s just scheduling the time now.”
@FR
Now no place for the speculations why Overeem is not fighting in Strikeforce, why did you do it ?
a lot of novels in there. Can’t keep my attention for all that. gave up after Jcohl’s first one.
Ultimately, if Scott Coker can live with this situation, then who am I as a causal Strikeforce fan to comment or complain? It’s not like I’m going to cancel my subscription to Showtime just because his HW champion hasn’t made a recent appearance.
I wish him luck moving forward, and hope to see Overeem back in the cage soon. If memory serves, he’s a great fighter to watch, and should be a tough draw for any of the Strikeforce Alliance HWs to deal with…
IF I lived in a “Robot Chicken” world this is where my head would explode while I’m typing this…… BOOM……
I’m not sayin overeem isn’t a stud but come on guys if he loses in another promotion doesn’t that lessen his credibility of being a champ for strikeforce?
Interestingly enough, I’ve heard this fight could take place “within a couple weeks” followed swiftly by Overeem appearing inside “The White Cage” at DREAM 12.