Alistair Overeem will most likely face the winner of Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos for the heavyweight belt on December 29th, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “Yah that’s what we’re thinking,” said Dana White at UFC 153 to Ariel Helwani from Mmafighting. “We’ll see how this thing plays out. Again, nothing is done, nothing is etched in stone. Yah but that’s what I would like to see happen.”
Overeem is the first man to hold two championships belts in two major combat sports, of which is the K-1 World Grand Prix title (the kick boxing championship) and two mma championships as well in both Strikeforce and Dream Fighting Championships. He has yet to taste gold in the UFC though.
Watch the video below to view Alistair Overeem’s knockout power in this devastating K-1 kickboxing bout.
VIDEO COURTESY OF K-1 and YOUTUBE UPLOADER Suboloc..
Innitially Overeem was next in line for the next shot at Junior’s UFC title upon his quick knockout win over Brock Lesner at UFC 141. After reasuring his bosses that he was the most tested man in the mixed martial arts, Overeem fell victim to a random drug test by Nevada’s State athletic Commission (NSAC), where it was revealed that Overeem had a testeosterone to epitestosterone ratio of 14-1. A normal human is usually sitting at a 1-1 ratio and the law states an individual is allowed a ratio up to 6-1.
After this happened, former heavy weight champ Frank Mir, who was riding a three fight win streak in the division, stepped in to fight Dos Santos. He looked like an old man in the rain against a younger, faster, and more powerful fighter when they fought and was unceremoniously dispatched on the historic all heavyweight fight card at UFC 146 last May, in the second round as predicted by Dos Santos by knockout.
Velasquez had just lost the belt to Dos Santos and subsequently earned his second shot at the belt when he defeated Antonio Silva that night in the co-main event. Dos Santos had taken Velasquez’s belt on the first Fox fight ever in a one minute knockout. The rematch will hopefully provide Velasquez a chance at showcasing his full repertoire of skills he was able to implement against most of his opponents before running in to a Dos Santos bomb.
“He’s the nicest guy in the world,” White said of Dos Santos. “But he said, ‘I have nothing but respect for Cain Velasquez. I like him as a person and as a fighter, and I think he deserves the shot at the title. But I do not want to fight him,’ which is not what he said a month ago.”
Catching Dana White at a recent UFC event, the champ expressed his anger at Overeem’s recent comments about his apparent fear of fighting him. “Alistair Overeem is a punk,” Dana shared Dos Santos comments with the press back in August. “He’s got a big mouth, and he’s been saying lots of bad things about me, and I want to knock him out. I want to knock him out now.”
Dos Santos has been very attentive and generally good natured in most of his interactions with the press and other fighters so this came as a shock to Dana White and the rest of the mma community at the time.
Overeem will officially become eligible to apply for a license with the NSAC on December 27th. Until then, the comments he said in an interview with mmajunkie last July are most likely wringing in the champs ears to this day.
Mmajunkie excerpt: “He can talk all he wants,” Overeem said. “I know he’s very happy that fight didn’t happen, and I know he’s afraid to fight me. He also knows that I’m the biggest threat out there to him. He knows when he fights me, there’s no escape from it. He’s going to hit and run, or he’s going to go down. Either way, he’s going to leave that octagon a loser.”
By Gabe Keith ~ Senior Writer
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