Homage to Dutch fighting tradition with UFC Fight Night Overeem vs Arlovski

The land of the Rembrandt, Johan Cruyff, Philips electronics, windmills, tulips, cheese, wooden clogs, red light district, coffee shops, Heineken beer also has another tradition. A combat sports tradition! Every fight fan should know by now that this nation of 16 million people also produced the best standup fighters in the world. Multiple K-1 World Grand Prix kickboxing champions Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Remy Bonjaski, Semmy Schilts and eight-time Muay Thai world champion Ramon Dekkers, to only name a few, are all combat sports legends from the stables of the Netherlands. The Dutch also left a firm imprint in the UFC by having eight time Dutch karate champ Gerard Gordeau run the table together with the legend Royce Gracie at the very first UFC event in 1993. And in 1999 Hall of Famer Bas Rutten took the UFC heavyweight title. Two Dutch heavyweights will try to keep the fighting tradition going on May 8th, 2016 in Alistair “The Reem” Overeem and Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve.

Not only the men have built the Dutch combat sports legacy but on the women’s side, the country also known as Holland, produced arguably the best female boxer ever in undefeated world champ Lucia Rijker. If that is not enough, another lady from this country was once considered the most dangerous woman on earth. This is non-other than former 47-0 undefeated World Muay Thai champion Germaine de Randamie. And as faith would have it, it is the same Germaine who will be in the octagon on Sunday May 8th. Even though “the Iron Lady” has yet to produce the same success in MMA with a 5-3 record, it will be a delight for the home crowd to welcome back a legend of the sport. If the UFC only had a women’s 145lbs pound division I am pretty sure the promotion would have had Dutch women’s MMA pioneer Marloes Coenen signed ready to vacate her Fox Netherlands UFC commentator’s box to lace up in a heartbeat.
All in all there is a lot of fighting tradition in this country and this educated crowd will not stand for anything less than exciting fights. Looking at the card so far I think the UFC is taking it very serious. See you in Rotterdam on May 8th, 2016 at UFC Fight Night Overeem vs Arlovski!