It’s been quite the day for newly-signed UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem.
Shortly after signing a contract with the UFC, Overeem learned he would be facing former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar on the upcoming December 30 pay-per-view card.
“Honestly, it feels like one of the biggest days in my life, a sort of life-changing thing,” Overeem told Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. “UFC is really big. They just did the FOX deal. You have all these possible match-ups happening right now, so for me, it’s a very exciting time. The team is very excited. UFC people are very excited.”
Since joining the heavyweight ranks, Overeem has steamrolled the competition in various organizations outside the UFC. He is the reigning Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Dream Interim Heavyweight Champion and K-1 World Grand Prix Champion.
With an exclusive UFC deal in place, Overeem will relinquish all of those titles in hopes of capturing the most prestigious championship in all of MMA––the UFC heavyweight title.
“I got offered to fight for the championship belt, but that would mean I had to wait, because of course [Junior] Dos Santos is fighting [Cain] Velasquez November 12. It’s going to be a great fight. Then probably these guys are going to need some healing time, relaxing time, so November plus six months, that will probably be May,” said Overeem.
“I’m a fighter. I like to be active, so then some names came rolling out and Brock Lesnar was among them, and I think it’s a dream match-up. The fans want to see it. I want to see it. I’m very excited about this fight, so I immediately said yes.”
When it comes to pay-per-view, there is no bigger name in the sport than Lesnar. A fight pitting the former champions against one another could smash sales records.
The winner of the bout is expected to challenge the winner of Velasquez and Dos Santos for the heavyweight title.
Lesnar’s health will be a major story heading into December 30. He is coming off a one-year layoff after suffering a second case of diverticulitis. Many people around the MMA community didn’t expect Lesnar to ever fight again, and here he is returning to action earlier than expected.
“I expect [Lesnar] to be 100 percent. I mean, he’s a professional athlete for some period of time now. So he’ll be 100 percent, I’m not worried about that,” Overeem said. “But basically, I’m just focused on myself. I’m going to make sure I’m 100 percent, 120 percent, because Brock is a very strong, big guy, and I don’t really worry about his shape.”
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