Many fans and media members alike were coining last night’s co-main event at UFC Fight Night 26, as the real main event. Considering the rankings of these two monsters, and their potential for dominance against the heavyweight elites, this one simply mattered.
From the opening bell, Alistair Overeem took control of the fight, taking it to Travis ‘Papa’ Browne with vicious strikes and aggressive cage control. It wasn’t hard to tell he was fighting off the demons from his upset loss to Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, back in February at UFC 162.
Then again, Browne was also facing similar fears, having lost in similar fashion to Bigfoot at UFConFX5, as Overeem dropped him in to the cage with a flying knee and began following up his stand-up barrage with brutal knees (at least one that looked extremely illegal) and straight strikes to Browne’s exposed body.
But while the referee was pretty much yelling at Browne to ‘move or else,’ Papa managed to struggle to his feet, and brusquely back Overeem up with a weak combination. From there the two began circling and exchanging leather.
At this point, Browne seemed to be awake and back in the fight, while Overeem seemed sluggish and tired. Throwing repeated upkicks, Browne managed to sneak one through Overeem’s wide stance, dropping the former K-1 kickboxing, Strikeforce, and Dream Champ. He swarmed with hammer fists that rivaled a 16 footer Michael Jordan jump shot, and walked away with the KO of the night, and a ton of momentum since KO’ing Strefan Struve a couple years ago at UFC 130.
“We looked at him from his his K-1 days and all of his previous UFC fights,” said Browne when asked about his persistence with the up-kicks at the post fight presser, “and we looked for a common denominator in what he did, and some of his openings, and we came up with a game plan. I didn’t really execute it when I was laying on the ground, crying like a little girl, but when I stood up, all it did was made me angry, and I knew I wasn’t going to go back down, wasn’t going to go back down one more time, and I just moved forward and started executing our game plan.”
With the current state of the heavyweights comprising two men at the top, and the rest milling around the bottom, it’s safe to say Browne will be added to many future title talk conversations.
“I just have to get back to San Diego,” said Papa at the post-fight presser, “spend some time with my boys, recover for a while, and just see how the body recovers in the next couple weeks. I’m always game, I’ve never said no to a fight, and I’m always ready for anything they throw my way.”
On what Dana White and Co. plans on doing with former number one contender in the heavyweight division, who’s now dropped back to back KO losses in Alistair Overeem? “I have no idea, yah I don’t know,” said Dana White to reporters at the post fight presser.