DREAM 12 Notebook: Alvarez and Beebe heading in opposite directions

Heading into Sunday’s event at Osaka Castle Hall, the storylines in the majority of the fights seemed pretty evident. Alistair Overeem was getting an easy headlining fight against James Thompson (a fan favorite in Japan), Eddie Alvarez was facing the up-and-coming Japanese star Katsunori Kikuno, and Chase Beebe came into DREAM 12 coming off of a series of tumultuous events in his recent MMA career (no-showing a UWC event in Virginia, losing to Joe Warren in DREAM, and then losing a controversial fight to Mike Easton). The Easton loss was later changed to a no-contest, but the damage was already done. Beebe was asked a few times by the Japanese media going into the fight about being on a four-fight losing streak and what he was going to do to stop it against the scrappy Yoshiro Maeda.

“Oh, I have to win, you know, it’s kind of it’s a situation for me where you know I’m like kind of deciding whether or not I might have to take another career path if I don’t start cranking out some wins, so you know it’s definitely a big situation for me.”

“Um, yeah, you know I got a huge amount of respect for him, he’s an excellent fighter, uh, I’ve seen him fight many times and you know he’s well-rounded, he’s got through the book everything you know so I’m going to have to be prepared for everything in this one and you know it’s an honor for me and you know I definitely have an abundant respect for Maeda.”

Beebe was thought to have an advantage going into the fight because it was DREAM’s first-ever cage show.

“Oh I like it a lot, you know I’m much more used to fighting in the cage and uh you know I think with wrestling, it helps you, it works to your advantage so you know I really like the cage, I’m excited to see what it’s like.”

“I just want to show you know a great Bantamweight fight, you know just uh let people know you know us lighter guys are really great, excellent, entertaining fighters and I just want to be crazy, I want to be real high-paced and I want to show the fans you know that we have the best fights, us light guys.

I feel real good, um, my body feels good, just kind of accustoming to the sleeping uh and the time zones so kinda been sleeping for the past 15 hours, but other than that, you know, got that sleep and now I feel good.”

After losing to Meada by submission, Beebe wasn’t feeling so good about his performance.

“It’s hard to explain right now. It’s just, uh, I just don’t understand what I’m doing right now, so I don’t know, it’s hard to describe. Obviously, you can imagine, so…”

It didn’t help that Beebe went into the fight with no game plan.

“Uh, you know I just try to see where the fight is going to take and um you know I don’t really try to have a game plan, I just to try to you know play it by ear and obviously it didn’t work out in my favor, so… I think you know obviously Maeda is an extremely good opponent and a great fighter and uh you know he uh he just capitalized on a mistake and you know at this level and a fighter at that caliber you can’t really make those kind of mistakes, so you know just number one factor you know is his skill level and my lack of tenacity, I guess.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Eddie Alvarez continued his impressive showing in the Lightweight division as he fought Kikuno and survived a neck crank attempt in the early stage of the fight to eventually beat Kikuno by submission.

Alvarez was asked before the fight why he had been focusing more on Bellator and less on Japan.

“I’m glad to be back in Japan and uh I want to build myself a little more in America in my own country uh to build my name and reputation a little more, but I never forgot about here in Japan uh I love fighting here, I love fighting for the Japanese crowd and um I’m just glad to be back here, I’m glad to be back on the DREAM card and perform. Kikuno is a Japanese champion, um, it’s very rare that you get to see two champions from two different promotions fighting each other and um I’m glad that that’s going to happen, DREAM’s put that together, uh, I’m the Bellator Lightweight champion in America and he’s the DEEP Lightweight champion here in Japan and you’ve rarely get to see that cross-promotions and um two champions fighting each other so uh I’m excited about that, that’s something very rare and something that DREAM was able to put together so I train my best and um I have every intention on um bringing a show like always.”

The well-spoken Alvarez put over his heart and fighting spirit, something that instantly connects with Japanese fight fans.

“I think in every fight I think people count technique too much, um, people count uh who has better stand-up, who has better ground, who has better and I think people leave out the most important factor and that’s spirit and my spirit and my heart is unbreakable, so um, I plan on showing that and um I think that’s the biggest factor in not just this fight but every fight and um that’s why I’m going to be victorious in my fights just because of the spirit that I fight with.”

Alvarez was excited to fight in the cage for DREAM. Perhaps the cage format will help DREAM attract more top foreign talent like the Bellator champion?

“I’m excited to fight in a cage. We don’t uh train in a cage in my gym, we actually train in a ring but um I’m very cage-savvy, I know a lot of tricks against the cage and I like being in a cage and I know how to use the cage against my opponents so um I hope it’s something that Kikuno is able to adjust to because if you don’t it could be bad for him. I have no um no particular place that I like to, I’ll fight in the street if I have to, it doesn’t matter to me as long as um the two guys are there and I don’t think it really matters, I have no preference. I’ve studied the majority of Kikuno’s fights and his movements and the things he does so I’m very prepared and I have a very good game plan for Kikuno.”

That game plan was almost derailed right away with the awkward neck crank hold in the first round.

“It was tough to get going because in the beginning I got caught in a weird situation. Something that I’ve never been in before and it caught me off-guard, but as soon as I adjusted and got my wits about me again, I think I was able to control the fight the way I wanted to in the beginning. I originally thought that they were just going to break it so I just kind of relaxed in there and then the ref just let it keep going and he kept cranking, cranking my neck. I didn’t feel like it was a move that you would give up to, um, I just felt uncomfortable, that’s all and I didn’t realize until I got out of it that um it was stopping the blood flow to my brain I guess and it messed up my footing, so when he did let me out of it my footing wasn’t right and I wasn’t getting the oxygen to my brain to move the way I wanted to.”

Kikuno’s crescent kicks didn’t prove to cause much damage against Alvarez.

“Uh, no, I think one may have got through and got me in the mid-section but for the most part, it wasn’t very effective. Uh, I think I did a good job of closing the distance and not letting him control the outside and get his kicks off.”

In the show’s main event, James Thompson took a fight against Alistair Overeem on short-notice. Thompson made sure to tell the Japanese media about that so that when he lost it wouldn’t be as damaging.

“I’m very excited to be part of such a big event. I’m especially you know DREAM’s a great company you know like you said I never fought for DREAM plus being the first time in Japan that’s going to be a cage you know to be fighting such a good opponent on such a good card, I’m very happy. I’ve known Alistair quite a while and I’m watched him fight, watched him improve, he’s doing very well at Heavyweight you know he’s got good stand-up, he’s a good all-around fighter so you know it’s going to be a very tough fight for me but I look forward to tough fights in Japan. Like always, no matter where I fight you know Japanese fans are the best fans in the world, I really love fighting in Japan, I always want to give 100% you know what I mean and that’s what I’ll be doing in this fight just like any other I’ll be giving it 110% for myself and for the fans.”

“i’m you know I don’t look too far ahead, at the moment I’ve got a big fight a big challenge coming up so I’m just focusing 100%. Months after that, I’ll look for other challenges. I’m not 100% sure, you know, I was just asked if I would take the fight, it was on short-notice and I think I would imagine the promoters want someone who is exciting, who will take a fight last-minute, and who will give it their all and I think I fit that characteristic so that’s why I think they called me and obviously that’s why I am here.”

Thompson drew much more media attention than other fighters on the card. He was asked by one reporter if he viewed the fight with Overeem as something that gave him more motivation because Overeem was the Strikeforce champion and Thompson is a Strikeforce fighter.

Overeem, meanwhile, had a wacky pre-fight press conference where he showed up in a Popeye spinach t-shirt to show off his muscles.

“I’m very excited to fight at DREAM 12. It’s always good to be back in Japan, back in Osaka, and I’m also looking forward to fighting in the cage, it’s going to be a new experience in DREAM, a new experience for the fans, and although I have some experience in the cage in Russia and America, I think this will be different, so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve known James Thompson from PRIDE where I was a Light Heavyweight. Personally I think he’s a nice guy, um, yeah, what can I say, I’m going to hurt him, I’ve been training a lot of K-1, I need for the K-1 fights, I’ll be focused on striking and I’m hoping to do a lot of damage.”

Overeem, in the end, didn’t really hurt Thompson — he just caught him in a guillotine choke and finished him in short time.

“I feel I’m obviously very disappointed,” exclaimed Thompson in his post-fight presser. “Um, I only had a week’s notice for the fight, you know I love fighting in front of the Japanese fans and any time I get that call I’m always up for it and the fight, even though I wasn’t in shape um I just thought I made a silly mistake and I would have liked to give the fans a little bit more. I feel disappointed for myself, for the Japanese fans, hopefully I can come back New Year’s Eve and you know get some training and give the fans a proper fight.

Obviously um I didn’t take the single-leg tight enough and I fought with my head being on the inside, it’d be pretty safe and obviously Alistair’s his guillotine that’s what he’s very good at and he still managed to slip it in. Um, you know what I mean, I’m managed to catch myself, you know that’s I think where I made the mistake.”

Overeem, in his post-fight presser, showed confidence in himself.

“I feel very good, very happy, was a good win, I think James Thompson is very strong, but yeah, today I was stronger, so I’m happy about that.

I’m ready for everything. I’m ready for stand-up fight, I’m ready for ground fight, I’m ready for people who are defensive, I’m ready for people who attack, I’m ready for people who rush, so I’m ready for everything. Doesn’t matter what they’re going to throw at me, I’m going to be ready.

It was an honor to be fighting in the cage in Japan for the first time. It did feel a little bit different than the ring, not too much, I think a fight is a fight and it doesn’t where you fight in, uh, I think the cage is a little bit safer, but I think I still prefer the ring.”

Right after this comment, Overeem directed the Japanese reporters.

“OK, I want you to write all of you to write this down, I want to fight Fedor, Alistair Overeem wants to fight Fedor in April 2010, so write that down.”

Asked by a translator where he would like the fight to take place, Overeem didn’t really seem to care.

“I don’t care, maybe in DREAM, maybe in Strikeforce, I don’t care, rather in DREAM, but Strikeforce is also OK.

I want as soon as possible. I’m first fighting in the K-1 finals December 5th, after the K-1 finals there’s the Dynamite show, then I’m going to take a little time off, a holiday, and then April is the first I think the first possible date.”

• DREAM.12 Weigh-In Results
• Alistair Overeem To Fight at DREAM.12? [Rumor]
• Dream 12: Caged Event, Kikuno vs. Alvarez
• Joe Warren at DREAM 11 learns about MMA the hard way
• Quick Hits: Thompson, Overeem, Velasquez, Swick, + More