The news that Alistair Overeem failed a surprise drug test after last Tuesday’s UFC 146 pre-fight press conference shouldn’t really surprise anyone. It simply confirms what everyone suspected all along—that you can’t really build a human body that looks quite like Overeem’s without synthetic help.
The steroid failure isn’t the surprise.
The shocking thing, at least to me, is that Overeem failed the drug test despite knowing that he would be the subject of random testing in the months leading up to his fight with Junior dos Santos. The Nevada State Athletic Commission made that abundantly clear when they granted him a conditional license for his fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 141, a situation that only came about when Overeem conveniently left America on the same day the NSAC called and asked for a urine sample.
Overeem’s failure puts a question mark around the UFC 146 main event. UFC President Dana White noted today in a conference call with Canadian media members that he was beyond angry with Overeem (via The Star Phoenix):
I am beyond pissed about this, White said. I’m so (expletive) mad right now. How (expletive) stupid do you have to be? Seriously dumb. Anybody who’s using (performance-enhancing drugs) right now is an absolute (expletive) moron.
White also said that Overeem previously told he and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, while sitting in the UFC’s offices in Las Vegas, that he was drug-free and would pass any impending tests.
And yet he still failed.
And so what might have been another huge UFC main event, headlining a landmark card filled with heavyweight bouts, is simply out the window. Not due to injury, as is usually the case, but due to one fighter simply believing he was above the system. How else do you explain Overeem giving the NSAC the run-around prior to the Lesnar fight, getting away with it and winning the biggest fight of his career, only to turn around and start using performance-enhancing drugs?
It boggles my mind. I simply cannot understand what Overeem was thinking.
He knew he would be tested at least twice prior to his fight with Dos Santos. He knew those tests would be random. He knew he needed to stay clean in order to earn his title shot, and he knew that everyone in the world placed him under a microscope after December’s fiasco.
And yet he still failed.
This is not a man who is deserving of a title shot. I’m sure we’ll hear all kinds of excuses from Overeem, as we did during the December NSAC meeting when he explained how he was able to avoid taking a random drug test for nearly one month. We’ll hear about those evil tainted supplements and how they caused him to fail.
But the absolute bottom line is this: Overeem gloated about being the most-tested fighter in the sport.
He knew he would be randomly tested as soon as he had a public event in Las Vegas. He knew he needed to pass that test, for his own reputation and for the sake of the UFC, who put a ton of trust in him by giving him another main event after his run-around with the NSAC in December.
And yet he still failed.
That’s inexcusable. There’s no other way to put it.
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