Alistair Overeem went from being a guy with a soft chin, woman-beater, bar-room brawler, suspected steroid-user, and crotch shot artist to a fan favorite, almost with one simple publicity stunt: the Reem.
The Reem is a well edited quick video that allows fans to learn a little more about Alistair Overeem’s personal life. In the latest installment, we learn about Overeem’s daughter, training partners, the ineptitude of Japanese promotions, and that Bas Rutten likes to dance.
Rutten opens part 5 with a little tale of a young Overeem desperately trying to figure out how to out-grapple El Guapo. Rutten remains one of the easiest guys in MMA to like.
Gegard Mousasi makes an appearance in the video, training with Overeem. Nothing terribly interesting is explored here, but it is interesting that Mousasi trains with both Overeem and Fedor Emelianenko, when both seem to be on a collision course, of course with a Brazilian monkey wrench now in the mix. I wonder who Gegard would corner?
The video then cuts to some cute scenes with his daughter, where he talks about how he will handle her future boyfriends saying, “If I don’t like the guy, then he’s not going to come back. It will be the first and last time I ever see him.” It might just be the last time anyone ever sees this potential young man, period.
Then we hear about Overeem’s frustrations with Dream. First he has an unknown opponent, then he doesn’t have an opponent at all, but that frees him up to watch Fedor/Werdum so he can challenge Fedor after he wi…well, never mind. Who knows who Overeem will face next? Since his last title defense was against a guy coming off a loss, maybe we can still see him face Fedor in the crazy world of Strikeforce match-making.
Anyway, most fighters should take note of Overeem’s marketing ploy. These videos did wonders for Dana White’s image, and now one of the more disliked fighters out there is one of the more well-liked. Of course this method may not be for everyone – for some less would probably be more.
