Submitted by: Denis Martins
Before the announcements by DSE for the PRIDE GP 2005 collision, ADCC News caught-up with the Dutch fighter Alistar Overeem from Golden Glory. In this interview conducted on July 13th, Overeem already displayed his intention of fighting ChuteBoxer 'Shogun' in the semifinals. Below you can read what Overeem says about his quick win over Igor Vovchanchyn and his full opinion about the matches held on that spectacular June 24th night.

DENIS MARTINS: Congratulations for your quick and lethal performance at Pride GP against Igor Vovchanchyn. Was it your strategy to work for the submission? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: Yes! It was the time, of course I fight for the KO and I prefer striking instead grappling. But we prepared both possibilities for this fight.

DENIS MARTINS: I expected to see a hell of fight on the feet with a lot of strikes on the feet. What did you expect about the fight? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: Well, of course Igor is a very good striker and I am also. However I am still growing in my striking ability as well as my submission ability. Why would I confine myself to only striking when I can do both?

DENIS MARTINS: You're right. So what did you focus your training for fighting Igor Vovchanchyn? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: I focused on striking with him. To overcome his dangerous weapons of course (right hook and fast combinations) and I always polish my own striking skills (muay thai and boxing)

DENIS MARTINS: Were you sure he would tap when you sunk that guillotine-choke or didn't you expect it? OVEREEM: Of course I expected him to tap. If you can't breath, you tap and the choke was on him alright.

DENIS MARTINS: Vovchanchyn now is a part of your past, and now what are you thinking? What are your goals? OVEREEM: My current goal is to win this tournament. As I told everybody before I fought Vovchanchyn that I'm very realistic. This for me was a challenge. If I could beat Igor I'm ready to win the tournament.

DENIS MARTINS: Who do you believe can be your opponent in next round of Pride Middleweight GP? OVEREEM: I believe because we now have the situation of 2 ChuteBoxe fighters in the finals I will face 1 of them. I expect it to be Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua as I have stated to the Pride-staff that I want to face him.

DENIS MARTINS: Why Shogun? OVEREEM: It will be a very spectacular fight. Same styles, total war!

DENIS MARTINS: You're between three Brazilian fighters, do you feel any pressure about this task or doesn't matter? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: Brazillians are, like you and me, very human.

DENIS MARTINS: What's your opinion about the other three matches of GP? One of them surprised you? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: Ricardo Arona vs. Kazushi Sakuraba; I feel sorry for Sakuraba. I think he is getting too old to take all that punishment always. Wanderlei Silva vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura; the fight went as I predicted. Kinda easy win for Silva. Nakamura did surprise at fighting the way he did against Silva. He (Nakamura) only made a dumb mistake by taking off his gi. Shogun vs. Antonio Rogerio 'Minotoro' Nogueira; it was a good fight, a real war as everybody expected. Shogun is a good fighter and I enjoy watching his fights. But props to Rogerio, his boxing skills are going up!

DENIS MARTINS: Do you think that after your two submission victories

over two excellent fighters (Belfort and Vovchanchyn) people will give you more recognition? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: I think so, but to tell you the truth those type of things don't matter to me. I train very hard with my team. This is not in a cocky way, but I know for myself that I'm good. I enjoy my training every day and my victories have always been good. I've never won a match by decision. So, all 24 of my fights were defined by KO or submission.

DENIS MARTINS: Any kind of frustration about ADCC 2005? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: None at all. I qualified for the tournament, but Pride has a higher priority of course.

DENIS MARTINS: Thank you for your time, would you like to add anything else? ALISTAIR OVEREEM: Thanks for taking this interview with me, it's always a pleasure!