Overeem's stance is why he looked slower tonight. (Gifs included).
Hey guys. So now that the chaos surrounding Overeem's debut has died down, I want to point out Overeem's intelligent use of his stance.
Lets look at Overeem in some of his different MMA and K1 fights.
This was Overeem's fight with Werdum. Overeem kept his hands much higher and feet closer together. He knew Werdum lacked powerful TDs so he was able to use a more kick-boxing oriented stance.
We see Overeem going against another striker in Brett Rogers here. Again, his stance is decently narrow and he has his hands very high. He knew Rogers probably wasn't going to shoot a TD and if he did, it would have been a pretty weak one. Thus, his hands are high and his stance more narrow.
This is one of Overeem's K1 fights. Notice he keeps a much narrower stance, which he uses to maximize his power and speed when he throws or defends. It is very similar to the one he uses in the Werdum and Rogers fights.
Now, notice in this gif, Overeem has a much wider stance with his hands lower. Overeem knew that he could take a stance like that and still outstrike Lesnar handily. His wide stance takes away from the explosiveness he has when he steps in to throw a punch. His lower hands were the reason he got tagged by that jab. Overeem utilized this stance in anticipation of Lesnar's takedowns. With little threat from Lesnar on the feet, Overeem could get away with using this stance and not being punished for it on the feet.
This, most importantly, shows how smart of a fighter Overeem has become. He has shown he will adapt a different stance for who he is fighting. Against JDS, he will probably go back to his more traditional kickboxing stance.
Secondly, it explains to some extent why Overeem looked more flat footed and less explosive than usual. Having a wide, more wrestling oriented stance, will negatively effect his stand up since it forces him to have to plant his feet more and cause him to have less room to explode into his punches. This was not a problem against Lesnar since Overeem is a much, much better striker than Lesnar ever will be.
I thought this was the most interesting and most impressive part of Overeem tonight. It shows his game planning is quite good.
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Last edited by ShreddinMMA; 12-31-2011 at 05:37 AM.
agreed. i was thinking he appeared awkward with that wide hands low stance, at least compared to what we're used to seeing. but the game plan worked, stuffed a take down or two.
He crushed some ribs. What else is needed to be said?
I thought it was a pretty cool thing to see. MMA fighters who have established their stance rarely change it up. I thought it was very interesting to see Alistar do that.
Not to mention it forces hater to make up some sort of argument if they don't want to look dumb in this thread.
__________________
I don't care what the books or people say. I believe in the Axe Murderer.
