From Beating Brock Lesnar to the Prelims: The Fall of Alistair Overeem

The night of his promotional debut at UFC 141, Alistair Overeem was arguably the scariest MMA fighter on the planet.

Overeem came into that bout against Brock Lesnar on December 30, 2011, riding an 11-fight unbeaten streak. He was also preceded by a reputation as perhaps the sport's most vicious knockout artist.

At 6'4", 263 pounds of sculpted muscle, the kickboxer appeared even more fearsome than the gargantuan Lesnar. Overeem was such a presence that the former UFC heavyweight champion—himself returning from an illness-induced 14-month layoff—looked visibly uncomfortable to be in the cage with him.

Their fight didn't last a round.

Heck, it didn't even last half a round.

Once Overeem had folded Lesnar in half with a body kick and pounded out a TKO win after just two minutes, 26 seconds of one-sided action, the only celebration necessary was for him to lift one finger in the air and nod his head in satisfaction of ticking another tedious item off his to-do list.

The Reem had arrived, and he was set to reshape the 265-pound landscape in his terrifying image.

Fast forward a bit more than six years and it's difficult to reconcile that vision of Overeem with the man who will take on Curtis Blaydes at UFC 225 on Saturday.

Overeem vs. Blaydes won't even air on the pay-per-view portion of the card, which goes down at the United Center in Chicago. Instead, the fight will be broadcast for free during the Fox Sports 1 preliminaries, which start at 8 p.m. ET.

Overeem himself couldn't help but comment on this fact via his official Twitter account last month, noting in his trademark wry style that the inauspicious placement will just allow his European fans to get some extra shuteye (they are five or six hours ahead):

Dana White cut a bit more to the bone. When asked during a recent press conference how he could leave a bona fide legend like Overeem to the prelims while slotting 0-1 former pro wrestler CM Punk on the PPV card, the UFC president didn't mince words.

"When Alistair Overeem sells as many pay-per-views as CM Punk does, we can argue," White said.

Ouch.

While still officially the No. 2-ranked overall contender in the heavyweight division, these days Overeem isn't the worldbeater he was as a younger man. He's scuffled to 2-2 during his last four fights and most recently wound up on the wrong end of a highlight-reel KO by Francis Ngannou at UFC 217 six months ago.

Now 38, Overeem is going off as a slight underdog to the gritty but unheralded Blaydes, according to OddsShark. He's still among the most decorated strikers in the entire UFC, but he never again reached the heights of his initial victory over Lesnar.

Their bout was intended to be a title eliminator, but Overeem didn't make it to his date with then-champion Junior dos Santos at UFC 146. In April 2012, Overeem failed a drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and was handed a de facto nine months suspension that knocked him out of consideration for a title shot.

The positive drug test confirmed the longstanding suspicions of fans who had watched him morph from a beanpole light heavyweight early in his career to a hulking heavyweight by his mid-30s.

After claiming the Strikeforce heavyweight title from Paul Buentello in November 2007, Overeem spent the bulk of the next four years fighting outside the U.S. That stretch saw him craft finishes in nine of his 10 wins—eight coming in the first round—while he steadily added to his physical bulk and to his resume as one of MMA's most imposing figures.

By the time he landed in the UFC, his physique befit the "Uberreem" nickname he'd hung on himself a few years earlier. The moniker was a sly wink at the German word for "Superman" and meant to underscore Overeem's penchants for quick stoppages and massive gains.

The win over Lesnar to nab No. 1 contender status in the UFC should have been the springboard that put him into the stratosphere. Instead, it will likely stand as his Octagon career's high watermark.

After serving his commission-mandated timeout, Overeem lost three of his next four fights. He rebounded to win four straight from December 2014 to May 2016, but then suffered a first-round KO loss to champ Stipe Miocic at UFC 203 in September 2016.

All told, Overeem's UFC career to date (8-5) has been good but not great. In a division where athletes routinely carry on into their 40s, he's certainly not over the hill, but the recent defeats by Miocic and Ngannou have stoked concerns that perhaps we've already seen the best he has to offer.

Overeem still looks pretty good physically, just not as good as he used to look.

He can still knock you out, but these days seems equally likely to get knocked out.

All this makes his upcoming fight with Blaydes an interesting litmus test for a guy many once thought destined to be the most dominant 265-pounder of all time.

At 27, Blaydes is one of the heavyweight division's young guns. He comes to the Octagon as a former junior college national wrestling champion and would have rolled into this bout amid a five-fight win streak had a February 2017 win over Adam Milstead not been turned to a no-contest after Blaydes tested positive for marijuana.

A loss in his UFC debut to Ngannou is Blaydes' only stumble in MMA competition since turning pro in 2014. His most recent victory was a unanimous decision over Mark Hunt at UFC 221 in February.

A win over Overeem here would make Blaydes' bones as a top heavyweight contender. With Miocic and Daniel Cormier set to scrap for the title at UFC 226 in July, Blaydes could easily position himself on the short list of guys who might be next.

Meanwhile, The Reem's UFC career has been trending in the wrong direction.

He was a dyed-in-the-wool main event star when he took out Lesnar. A dozen fights later, he finds himself in free fall, barely even worthy of pay-per-view consideration as he closes in on 40.

If he means to reverse course, the time is now.