This I can agree with! Let me clarify and further elucidate on my thinking that Reem should be -275 or so. Firstly, I suppose that I'm being a bit hyperbolic in that figure. However, I just like Reem regarding the stylistic matchup of the two fighters. Now normally if a fighter is -130 and you cap them at -275 you throw down a stack. Well, Reem is the exception to that rule. Mentally you just never know how he will react and he can let his opponent snatch victory from the jaws of defeat like only a Sonnen or Vitor could.
Nevertheless, I am confident, and will be playing him for a couple units. However, I would usually make this a max bet given my personal line as opposed to the books.
Lastly, let me reiterate why I think Reem may be getting a bit underrated and unfairly pigeonholed as a feeble minded glass cannon set on the audio fade list of many.
Remove the Stipe fight — as the champ is crumbling EVERYONE — and you get a fighter who has been KO'd 3 times in 23 fights. That's THREE times in TWENTY-THREE fights in the HW division.
Further, this spans NINE years!
This is extremely impressive considering that he fights in the HW division. That is the the division with the highest percentage of KO finishes. Specifically, as of 2016 you have 77.6% of the UFC heavyweight fights ending in a finish.
So Reem is getting finished 13% of the time over nine years. That's really remarkable actually.
Furthermore, as mentioned, the KO losses were in bizarre circumstances. The first to Browne came in a fight where he nearly beat a man to death and just ran out of steam. He's corrected this approach.
The other KO coming in the 3rd round to Bigfoot Silva where he was up two rounds. In hindsight it's not as bad as it appeared at the time. Like Reem, in 2013 BF was juiced to the fucking gills and not only survived three rounds of Ubereem but shortly thereafter withstood 25-minutes worth of bunker busting bombs from possibly the hardest hitter in the division in Mark Hunt.
His only other loss came to what was at the time a supernatural Ben Rothwell who had won 6 of 7 fights. That was six finishes in seven fights. Including snatching Brendan Schaub's soul, flatlining Matt Mitrione, clubbing Brandon Vera like a caveman and forcing the seemingly "untappable" Josh Barnett to instantaneously tap to a standing guillotine. Once again, it's safe to say, that with hindsight — like BF — that is not as bad a loss as it once seemed.
Fairly or unfairly, at this stage of his career Reem has been permanently typecast in the minds of fans and bettors alike. It's like John Wayne. You couldn't imagineWayne playing the role of an accountant or a newspaper editor. No. "The Duke" is always going to be that whitehat Cowboy or war hero fighting injustice. Similarly, Overeem is always going to be that glass jawed airhead that crumbles under pressure.
Accomplishments be damned, rightly or wrongly, stats or no stats, that's just how it is, Pilgrim.
