[ad_1]
If he does not do anything from that moment, Alistair Overeem will become one of the most nomadic fighters in the MMA's young history, going to the training camps of Thailand to Amsterdam, from South Florida to Albuquerque. He has traveled all over the world to train in his kickboxing and MMA fights combined, he has been in places with hash bars at all corners, as well as in those where horse meat is a Delicacy.
Recently, he arrived in Denver, a few kilometers above sea level. Instead of a dedicated coach, he the coachesas in the plural. The Elevation Fight Team is a carousel experience in which Overeem found that its twilight was a welcome place. He now sees a daily collective of Eliot Marshall, Christian Allen, Cody Donovan, Vinnie Lopez and Dave Zabriskie – the Hydra of Coaches – who run their own schools, but none of whom are attracted to Overeem in because of his name (or the size of his checks).
This is the last ride of Overeem's career. He has hard asses that bark him.
"He does not have" yes men "around him," Marshall told MMA Fighting this week. "He does not have people around him." OK, Alistair, what you want. "He has people saying, it'll be okay."
Not that his new situation is a rigid experience with dictators on megaphones or anything. It's just a stern workplace. Marshall and his company give Overeem the respect of a veteran fighter and act according to his moods and mood. "We're listening to him, he's almost 40 years old and when he needs a day off, he says," I have to relax today, "we relax," says Marshall. But again, one of the problems with a brand like Overeem – who jumped from camp to camp, knowing all kinds of situations – is that some teams only see what he can do for their gym, rather than to consider it as such. the gym can do for him.
"Our greatest asset to Elevation – and you can talk to everyone about it – is that no one is bigger than the team," Marshall said. "It was a very important topic at first with Alistair. Just making sure we were all on the same page. Do not get me wrong, being Alistair's trainer is a boost for our ego, but most importantly for us is that we have a set of core values in which we believe and do not respect, especially not for money. "
Marshall, a veteran of the UFC, believes that Elevation speaks to Overeem as a dedicated, safe environment with no hidden agenda.
"I think what really drew Alistair, is that sometimes everyone wants to be the coach of Alistair – one for the ego, and two for the check that they have. it provides, "he says. "Everyone has the chance to see what his salary looks like. So, people are doing everything they can to work with Alistair Overeem, where I do not think we've really done that. We all have our own thing, we all have our own separate schools. Whatever percentage we get from Alistair, it does not have much impact on the overall revenue of our school, nor in our lives. None of us is going to get there because of Alistair Overeem.
"I think that brought calm to the whole situation. Where I think a lot of people think, "Oh, fuck, here's my chance, here's my chance, I'll put my name on the map here, people will come to my school because Overeem is here, yadda yadda. do not know if a student came to one of our schools because Overeem is here, I mean, it's cool, but I think it really works, I think it makes him feel like nobody Use it for a paycheck – this is really one of the biggest problems of the fighting game – where the coach needs his fighter's money. "
In any case, the change of scenery seems to work. Since entering the academy in September 2017 – a few months after being knocked out by Curtis Blaydes, who happens to be also a member of the Elevation Fight team – he has qualified 2-0.
He had a brisk air against Sergei Pavlovich during his trip to Beijing last November, marking a TKO in the first round. And he weathered the storm against Aleksei Oleinik early last weekend in St. Petersburg, patiently waiting for a wave of offense from the great ace of the Ukrainian fight before starting with a knee that marked the beginning of the end.
Just like that, the "Reem" is back, and he hopes his planned fight with Alexander Volkov rematerializes. Its new coaching staff is taking advantage of the late resurgence, even though things did not go exactly as planned in Russia.
"It's the fight, it's happening," says Marshall. "He looked with it, like it was together after what I could see, and it worked. Look, this is never the game plan. During the next fight, the plan will not return to the fence and start again. We have all seen in heavyweights, especially with the gloves we wear, a shot ends. A shot finished for Alistair. This knee that comes around Aleksei's head, boom. It was more competitive at that time, but the ground shots were conclusive. So your game plan may not be taking pictures. "
"There is one constant in Overeem's extended run as a heavyweight contender, that's his melee … and his kicks … and those devastating knees." He put a big knee on Oleinik who essentially turned the fight in his favor. That's the only thing Marshall and his crew have been hit with, these knees.
Not their impact, because anyone who has watched Overeem over the years knows something about it. No, more on the abomination what are these knees, the very immensity of the size and volume of these fused bone formations.
"Have you seen his knees? It's like he's had surgery and he's been given an extra bone, or something, "says Marshall. "I looked at it once and I was like, Jesus Christ – I do not know what it is." His knees are shaped differently from the knees of others. </ P> <p> His knees literally have a spike on the knee, and it's really hard, and he's good at throwing them.
"Every athlete has his thing. Shane Carwin's hand was as big as a person's head. When he hit you, it was as if you were hit with a bowling ball rather than by my little ass hand. Alistair has these knees. "
This is a good turnaround for Overeem, who lost two games against Francis Ngannou and Blaydes before going to Elevation. There have been recent examples of end-of-career races, especially for heavyweights. Fabricio Werdum was not a spring chicken when he beat Mark Hunt (and later Cain Velasquez) to secure the belt. The current champion, Daniel Cormier, has just celebrated his 40th birthday.
Why not Overeem? If the opportunity arises, his new team may not be "yes men", but they are not about to say no.
"It's a heavyweight fight, man," says Marshall. "[Alistair] was ranked, what, about five to seven? Win one and you are four. They book DC and Brock [Lesnar], say … let's say that Brock is injured and he needs someone to replace him? Who knows what's going on in the world?
"If you sniff the top five or the top five, shit, stay tuned, buddy." You need to stay at 70 percent because if the phone rings and that's for the world's heavyweight title, the most nasty on the planet, the answer is yes.
[ad_2]
Source link