More than three years after they were originally scheduled to meet, Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos will finally fight at this weekend’s UFC on FOX 18 event. Overeem believes there’s a clear reason why it took so long to put the fight together...
“What other people do is their business,” Overeem told MMAjunkie. “But the fact is Junior did not want this fight. I had to push him a little bit to make this fight happen – a fight which, by the way, the whole world wants to see. The UFC wants it. The fans out there all want it. I’m getting messages from every corner of the globe that people want to see this fight. So I had to push Junior a little bit.”
The two were originally scheduled to face each other at UFC 146 in May 2012, but Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was pulled from the fight. It was scheduled again for UFC 160 in May 2013, but injury forced Overeem to withdraw.
“What other people do is their business,” Overeem told MMAjunkie. “But the fact is Junior did not want this fight. I had to push him a little bit to make this fight happen – a fight which, by the way, the whole world wants to see. The UFC wants it. The fans out there all want it. I’m getting messages from every corner of the globe that people want to see this fight. So I had to push Junior a little bit.”
The two were originally scheduled to face each other at UFC 146 in May 2012, but Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was pulled from the fight. It was scheduled again for UFC 160 in May 2013, but injury forced Overeem to withdraw.