UFC president Dana White has explained why he chose to cut heavyweight legends Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem earlier this week.
Overeem is coming off a second-round TKO loss against top contender Alexander Volkov.
‘The Demolition Man’ entered the bout with an impressive recent record, winning four of his previous five fights – making him something of a surprise cut.
Overeem went 13-8 with the promotion and holds wins over big names such as Brock Lesnar, Junior dos Santos, Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir.
The Dutch kickboxer challenged for UFC gold once, but fell short against current heavyweight king, Stipe Miocic.
Dos Santos is less of a surprise. The former heavyweight champion is currently riding a four-fight losing streak, all of which have come by knockout. Most recently he suffered a second-round TKO defeat to Ciryl Gane in December.
The Brazilian went 15-8 with the UFC and holds wins over big names such as Cain Velasquez, Frank Mir, Mirko Cro Cop, Fabricio Werdum, Shane Carwin, Mark Hunt and current heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, White explained his decision to let go of two of the most prominent heavyweight fighters in MMA history.
“People get cut every week,” White said. “I think those two are pretty self-explanatory. It’s nothing negative, it’s just part of the sport. If you look up what they’ve done recently … you look at their age … you look at everything that’s going on, it’s pretty self-explanatory.”
White was full of praise for both men who were apparently great to work with.
“Alistair Overeem never said no to a fight, never turned down a fight … would fight anybody,” White said. “And, JDS is one of the nicest human beings in the sport, I have nothing but amazing things to say about both guys.”
“Age, it gets us all man,” White concluded.
Do you think Dana White made the right call by cutting Junior dos Santos & Alistair Overeem?