Alistair Overeem or Brock Lesnar: Who's The Tougher Fight for Junior Dos Santos?

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar and former Strikeforce heavyweight champion and K1 Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Alistair Overeem are slated to face off against each other at the end of the year to determine the No. 1 contender to newly minted champion Junior Dos Santos.

Everyone saw what Dos Santos did to Velasquez in just over a minute during UFC on Fox 1: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos, it is going to take a very solid performance to dethrone the current champion.

Both Lesnar and Overeem pose very different challenges for the current champion and both men have the potential to be the toughest tests of Dos Santos' UFC career.

Should Lesnar beat Overeem, expect a classic wrestler vs. striker matchup against Dos Santos.

The winner in this fight will be determined by who can dictate where the fight takes place. Many people will be thinking Lesnar's best chance is to get the fight to the ground and Dos Santos' best chance is to keep the fight standing. Although this is true to a certain extent, there is one more place Lesnar can work from where he should have the advantage.

Lesnar is a strong wrestler with a lot of weight to force his opponents to carry, and as we have seen with Dos Santos in the past, he does get tired as the fight wears on.

If Lesnar can't secure a takedown, simply closing the distance and and clinching Dos Santos against the cage and leaning his weight on him in a fashion similar to Randy Couture's style could be the formula for success. This would have the potential to tire and frustrate Dos Santos, who would prefer to be at striking range.

Although Lesnar was beaten badly by Cain Velasquez, he did score two takedowns against him, and if he would have continued pressing Velasquez against the cage as opposed to dropping for his second takedown Lesnar may have fared better.

How Dos Santos fares when a 280-pound man is leaning on him against the fence has yet to be determined, but it is definitely something that would tire him out as the fight wears on—in fact, it would tire anyone out.

People also forget that in Lesnar's seven-fight career he has taken down all seven opponents. Of course, guys have gotten up quickly from the big man's takedowns, but those guys were high-level collegiate and Olympic wrestlers like Randy Couture, Shane Carwin and Velasquez. Watch Frank Mir, Heath Herring or Min Soo Kim against Lesnar, and getting up from under him doesn't look so easy.

The problem with Lesnar is that Dos Santos hasn't shown any weaknesses in his takedown defense and for now has looked good in close quarters.

If Dos Santos can keep the fight at striking distance there is no doubting he will pick Lesnar apart and probably finish the fight no matter how hard Lesnar has been working on his striking this past year.

Even if Lesnar does close the distance, Dos Santos might perform well regardless, depending on his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and ability to work out of the clinch.

Alistair Overeem, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. He doesn't have the wrestling of Velasquez or Lesnar, but he is probably the only fighter in the heavyweight division who's striking may be equal to or even better than Dos Santos'.

Overeem is a big, strong heavyweight similar to Lesnar, but has the standup technique to compete with the world's best strikers not only in mixed martial arts, but in professional kickboxing as well.

In 2010, Overeem won the K1 Heavyweight Grand Prix, a tournament where the best strikers on the planet compete.

Overeem knocked out Badr Hari during his career, which is impressive, to say the least. Watch Hari's fights, the guy is a monster. Anyone who can knock out Hari has legitimate skills in the standup department. Hari has moved on from K1 now and is preparing for his debut in professional boxing.

Of course, mixed martial arts is different than kickboxing, but it isn't as if Overeem is a fish out of water when the fight hits the mat or takes place in the clinch. He is a former Abu Dhabi Combat Club European champion, the prized organization for submission grapplers to compete. Not to mention the fact that 19 of his 35 wins come by way of submission, eight of which were his patented guillotine choke used to choke out Brazilian Jiu-Jitu black-belt Vitor Belfort.

Overall, Overeem is the tougher matchup for Dos Santos. He doesn't have the wrestling of Lesnar, but is the only heavyweight that has the striking prowess to match Dos Santos in the standup and his ground game is strong enough to threaten with submissions.


The two knocks on Overeem are that he hasn't fought the toughest competition and that his cardiovascular conditioning isn't up to par, as evidenced in his last fight against Fabricio Werdum. That being said, despite not fighting top guys all the time, the guys he has faced have been annihilated by him and even if there are questions surrounding his endurance, Dos Santos receives the same criticism.

In any case, Lesnar or Overeem are both very challenging fights for Dos Santos


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So lets here it, who do you guys think is the toughest fight for JDS out there right now?

I think Brock poses a much bigger threat to JDS, Junior as a low weight HW at 239lb is going to face many challenges if facing a 285lb Brock come fight time; more so with Brock's wrestling.
Granted of course Junior is heavier as well come fight time but a 30lb advantage to a wrestling freak is a lot to overcome on the mat. Now of course JDS poses big problems with striking for Brock and an obvious KO would be in JDS's hand if he faced Brock given his chin weakness.

But if Brock got it to the mat I would see an exhausted JDS gettign roughed up and maybe subbed by Lesnar.


With regards to Overeem, it is clear that both fighters have exceptional striking game; but does Overeem possess the power that JDS has?, i don't think so. Although Overeem definitely has a huge advantage in regards to the kicking game, which I think Cain was working to expose prior to getting KO'd by JDS.

Either scenario would really be good for the division, although I feel after Brock's brutal loss to Cain; I don't see him in title contention.... but I suppose beating Overeem would make it far more plausible.

I also went with Brock. It comes down to size and wrestling, Overeem has great stand up.
But, its now apparent that anyone who has been KO'd by LHW's won't fair well standing with JDS. But I think if Lesnar gets by REEM than JDS will be in some trouble. Its a great tune up fight for Lesnar really. He gets to test his striking defense against a world class striker and if he can get past that... JDS had better train the shit out of his TDD.

Overeem but not by much

Simply basing this on JDS just destroyed the guy who destroyed Brock.

Overeem has much better striking and boxing but has shown in the past his ability to lose big fights. Has showed bad cardio since becoming Ubereem.

Brocks wrestling and control looked sluggish against Cain . Has better cardio than Overeem.

I dunno, I need to see this fight happen hah

I picked some one else. Ever since that cain and JDS fight. i cant get kongo and JDS out of my head. I know kongo is not in the front running. but JDS awesome stand up against kongos great kickboxing...I dont know i want this fight.

Hmmm......

Now granted that is less likely to happen than Fedor fighting Brock in some kind
of superfight; I am interested in it; yet disappointed the UFC brass didn't put it together
beofre letting JDS get as big as he is now. Clearly with his title defense against Brock Or Overeem up next.

I went with reem simply for the experience factor. Lesnar has only been in a couple fights now where he had to defend himself from getting punched and punched hard. I still think he's fairly green when it comes to octagon and MMA experience.

I would actually love to see either of them fight JDS...

I picked Overeem.

If Lesnar got hurt in that fight, JDS would finish him. I have no doubt. He wouldn't get a "full body cramp" like Carwin and take a dump in the cage.
Overeem on the other hand is used to standing and trading, so JDS won't be able to overwhelm him (mentally I mean).
But I think Dos Santos wins either fight.