Major Overall, the antithesis of a fighter
Print Edition
FIGHT sports has seen the rowdy and sometimes thuggish behaviour of its star athletes shine brightest on its darkest days fuelled by the glare of the media spotlight. Mike Tyson made headlines for chomping on heavyweight rival Evander Holyfield, while Jon Jones captured the attention of the media for his drug-fuelled antics outside the cage.
Many psychologists have considered that to be part of the psyche of being a combat sports athlete where you are paid to duel with another person. However, a new breed of martial arts purists want to change that perception.
Take Major Overall for example, who lives what many would consider a very mundane life. Since, moving to Asia five years ago, Overall has settled into a life devoted to mastering the martial arts.
The only commute he does is from his apartment in the North-eastern part of Singapore to the gym and back, and spends the rest of his time studying the intricate details of the sport.
These days, he spends time studying former ONE Championship (ONE) Lightweight World Champion Kotetsu Boku. Overall is slated to step into the cage with the Japanese veteran at ONE: PRIDE OF LIONS on November 13.
“It is a weird feeling as I was already a fan of his. I just thought he was a wild brawler, but after studying his fight footage, watching his progression throughout his career and picking out all of his little nuances I was able to see his true fighting genius and have become an even bigger fan,” he said.
Overall’s mixed martial arts intellect was evident in his bout against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Bruno Pucci last year, when he utilised ONE’s global ruleset to finish Pucci with a technical ground kick in the first round. The technical ground kick is a move permitted in the global ruleset and for Overall, it makes the bout more free-flowing and no less dangerous. He stated, “The ruleset allows the action to develop more organically. The technical ground kick is a technique that looks intimidating for many but it is in fact less dangerous. If a mixed martial artist gets knocked out standing, he suffers that blow and then receives another blow as his head hits the ground, possibly even breaking an arm or leg in the process of falling. If you kick a guy in the head while he is on the ground he takes the damage of that kick and nothing more because he doesn’t fall. The world-class safety standards enforced by ONE also allows us mixed martial artists to give it our all knowing that we will be well taken care of.”
Although he is certain that he will be well taken care of inside the cage, he does not feel the same outside of it.
Overall professes to being scared of ‘almost everything.’ He states, “I panic on airplanes because my caveman brain does not understand how planes work. I even pass out in the doctor’s office before I give blood because the needle scares me so bad. If there is a bug in the kitchen I make my wife kill it. I justify this unmanly behavior by pointing out that the bug is closer to her weight class. All that being said I have zero worries about safety when I walk into the cage, I will admit though I do worry about tripping on the stairs (into the cage), I’m clumsy as hell and that would be pretty embarrassing when it is broadcast to a billion homes worldwide.”
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