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Valentijn Overeem

Between his years in Pride, K-1, Strikeforce and the UFC, Alistair Overeem has become such a storied MMA personality that it's easy to forget he started his career as the lesser Overeem--his older brother Valentijn was, once upon a time, the hot prospect who was going to leave his mark on the heavyweight division. It didn't quite work out that way, unfortunately, but he tried. Sort of.

Valentijn was another in the long line of Chris Dolman proteges out in the Netherlands, and like all his fellow Dolmanites he made his 1996 debut in Fighting Network RINGS and quickly established himself as a talented heavyweight grappler. He participated in The King of Kings tournament in both 1999 and 2000, and had a great run in the latter where submission wins over Babalu Sobral and Randy Couture took him to the finals--but in both years he was tapped out by the then-rising Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. His success and his lineage were more than enough to get him invited to Pride 14, and there was a reasonable amount of hype behind him in the early MMA community. At 20-10, with victories over three world champions and all but one of his fights ending by stoppage, it certainly seemed justified.

And that was how the early MMA community learned a valuable lesson about busts. Valentijn didn't just lose all four of his Pride fights, he lost nine of his next ten fights. In the space of just two years, he went from a highly-touted heavyweight prospect to just one loss away from a 50:50 record. He'd never return to prominence, either: He briefly resurfaced in Strikeforce as an alternate for their 2011 heavyweight grand prix, but after a win against non-MMA fighter Ray Sefo and a loss to Chad Griggs he returned to the European regional circuit, fighting--and losing--until retiring in 2014 at 32-34.

It's a testament to Valentijn's style and aggression that only two of his 66 fights went to decision, but it's also a testament to the questionable nature of his late career. In an interview, Alistair said his brother didn't take his MMA career seriously, and his endless slide demonstrated that to devastating effect: He fought aggressively, and certainly tried to win, but wilted immediately under strikes and tapped quickly to submission holds. When you're fighting for the paycheck instead of the passion, it's only sensible to go home as unscathed as possible.

But he's also the only person on the planet who can say they beat Randy Couture but got knocked out by a pornstar. So he's got that going for him, which is nice.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Pride 14 vs Goodridge / RINGS: King of Kings 2000 vs Couture / Strikeforce: Fedor-Silva vs Sefo / classic RINGS attire vs Tamura).