Saturday night’s UFC main event was all about Alistair Overeem. One of the most venerable, respected and well-loved heavyweights in MMA history stepped into the cage for his 67th professional fight, hoping to keep his dream of winning a UFC heavyweight title alive before his impending retirement. Overeem has made it clear that he only has a few fights left in him – he’s never planned on sticking around to defend the belt, only to win it.
And after winning four of his last five by knockout, you could kind of talk yourself into it. He’s far removed from the world-eater he was a decade ago, but he still brings a lot to the table. He was only a couple wins away from one last chance.
And then he got in the cage with Alexander Volkov. Dream, over.
We all spent so much time talking about and thinking about Alistair Overeem’s last run at the top that we forgot about Volkov, a hulking killer who made one of the great heavyweights of all time look like nothing on Saturday. According to Overeem, one of the first Volkov punches of the fight broke his nose and he never recovered. Overeem lasted seven minutes – it felt like if Volkov wanted to end it sooner, he could have easily.
Alistair Overeem isn’t the monstrous, roided-out Ubereem of yore – dude’s in great shape, but random guys probably aren’t screaming “VERY FANTASTIC BODY” at him anymore – but this is a big dude. Overeem is listed at 6-foot-4 and tipped the scales on Friday at 255 pounds. He could have easily been playing in the Super Bowl the next night. (He’d probably have had a better chance of blocking Shaq Barrett than the Chiefs O-line did.)
But rooting for Overeem as I was, I was nervous from the second the bell rang. That’s because when I saw Alexander Volkov sidle up to Overeem at the start of the first round, it looked like they were in two different weight classes. Volkov was listed at three inches taller and eight pounds heavier, a decent margin, but nothing super outlandish at heavyweight. But I cannot overemphasize how much LARGER Alexander Volkov looked on Saturday night.
It wasn’t just size. It was power, and speed as well. Overeem looked like a sitting duck from the first moments on. And when Volkov landed, he landed with a different sort of thud. It felt like every shot was hurting Overeem. The Dutch legend had gotten rocked early in both of his last two fights, against Walt Harris and Augusto Sakai, and rallied to win. This time around, however, a Volkov knockout seemed like an inevitability from the beginning.
It almost seemed merciful when Volkov turtled Overeem up with a big left hand in the second round and simply walked away. My immediate reaction was that this seems like the end of the road for the Demolition Man, and while he avoided talking about retirement after the fight, his one career goal remaining was to win a UFC title before he had to call it quits – that seems like an impossibility now.
But the doors that have closed for Overeem are opening for Alexander Volkov, who has looked like a stud since signing with the UFC in 2016. It’s felt like Volkov’s reputation has lagged behind many of the top heavyweights – in a division where Stipe Miocic, Daniel Cormier and Francis Ngannou have been the protagonists for several years, Volkov has occupied a tier of contenders below the likes of Derrick Lewis and Curtis Blaydes.
The fact that his two UFC losses are to the aforementioned Lewis and Blaydes haven’t helped matters. But look a little bit closer: Volkov was handily outworking Lewis and was en route to a unanimous decision with Lewis caught him with one of his trademark big bombs with 11 seconds left in the fight. And while Blaydes ruthlessly exploited his wrestling advantage in the first three rounds in their meeting back in June, Volkov rallied in the last 10 minutes and was in the thing until the very end.
In his two fights since the decision loss to Blaydes, against Walt Harris and now Overeem, Volkov has looked like a devastating force. With his size, power, cardio and good technical ability on the feet, he may be the single cleanest striker in the heavyweight division. Miocic is a brilliant boxer, but doesn’t put together all the limbs Volkov does. Ngannou has truly terrifying power, but it masks a lack of technique. Volkov is the full package on the feet, and I’d take him in a stand-up battle with almost anyone.
The takedown defense will be the singular issue moving forward – I thought we’d see Overeem attempt to take him down, and he tried to change levels once or twice, but he was out of sorts from the opening minute. We’ve seen Blaydes exploit his wrestling advantage, and you’d figure to see Miocic do the same. Being able to keep things on the feet, where he’s as dangerous as anyone, will be crucial to giving Volkov a shot at gold.
But after what he just did to Overeem, we need to start thinking about Volkov in that conversation. He’s not a third-tier, or even a second-tier contender. Alexander Volkov is a very bad man who should make anyone in the UFC heavyweight division nervous. He’s already crushed Overeem’s dream – he’s going to crush a few more before his time is up.
The Big Fight 