Alistair Overeem dominates Ben Edwards at K1 world grand prix 2010 final 16
Alistair “The Demolition Man” Overeem is the current heavyweight champion for the Strikeforce Mixed Martial Arts promotion. However Overeem decided to forgo a defence of his Strikeforce
title in order to focus on K1 kickboxing. After his showing at the K1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final 16 card in Seoul, Korea, it looked like he had made the correct decision.
Overeem’s opponent was Ben “The Guvner” Edwards. Edwards’ last fight was at the K1 World Grand Prix 2010 final in Canberra. Edwards won the tournament title in that bout by defeating Paul
Slowinski via technical knock-out at the 1m24s mark of the first round. Edwards walked away from that tournament with one first round knock-out and two first round TKO’s. The total time he spent in the ring at the tourney was 3m28s.
With that short amount of time in the ring Edwards now holds the record for fastest victory in a K1 tournament. Entering his bout with Overeem, Edwards had a kickboxing record of 30-7-2.
For his part Overeem entered the fight with a kickboxing record of 7-4 and an MMA record of 33-11. In addition to holding the Strikeforce heavyweight belt, Overeem is the number eight
ranked heavyweight on the USA Today consensus heavyweight MMA rankings list.
Overeem’s kickboxing career is fairly young, but it took a huge leap forward in the respect department in
September 2009 when he defeated three-time K1 champion Peter Aerts by unanimous decision. Overeem made it to the semi-finals of the 2009 K1 World Grand Prix before losing by TKO to Badr Hari.
When the bell rang to start their fight, Edwards engaged Overeem right away and threw a flurry of punches, but the focused Overeem shrugged off the blows fairly easily.
Close to one minute into the fight, Overeem found his opening and dropped Edwards with a hard right. Edwards regained his feet and came right back at Overeem. Again the strikes of Edwards
had no effect and with 1m31s left in round one Overeem delivered one of the hardest overhand rights the audience had possibly ever seen. The punch dropped Edwards immediately to the ring floor. Somehow Edwards was able to stand, but not for long as another
right dropped him for the third time. With that third knock-down, Overeem scored the TKO victory at the 2m08s mark of round one.
With the victory Overeem moves on to the final eight. The K1 World Grand Prix 2010 champion will be crowned at the conclusion of that event, which takes place on December 11.
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