With everything that has gone on in the past month, it’s no wonder that former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem is constantly getting asked if he feels distracted leading up to his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut versus Brock Lesnar at UFC 141.
Overeem faces more media attention, at least in North America, than he has in the past, he is dealing with a Nevada State Athletic Commission who has saddled him with four tests for steroids, an ill mother, and the changing of gyms mid training camp so he could return to the Netherlands to be at his mothers side.
In his latest Blog for Yahoo! Sports, Overeem wants to assure all of the fans and critics, that these “distractions” do anything but pull his focus away from the fight, they instead help him to “perform” at his best.
This is a fight that deserves attention and – in answer to a question I have got a lot in media interviews – no, it is not a major distraction. For me, the more attention on the fight, the more fans who are excited, the more people watching around the world – that makes me perform.
There are lots of little distractions, but none of them will affect the result. When I’m looking in Brock Lesnar’s eyes, I won’t be thinking about missing a training session because there was a miscommunication about my drug test…
I was asked if the miscommunications with my drug test, or even the worry about my mother, will distract me. I can tell you it will not. Once I get to the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Friday night to fight, the one and only thing on my mind is knocking Mr Lesnar out. That is my job, that is what the last three months have been all geared towards.
When I fight, I can be very, very single-minded. The rest of the world stops turning until I win the fight.