Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem (33-11) is coming off a victory over Ben Edwards at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Seoul Final 16 event in Seoul, South Korea this month. He’ll move on to face Tyrone Spong at the K1 World Grand Prix 2010 Finals in December.
During a recent interview, Overeem was asked about his running issues with Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko and his management.
“If Fedor reads the internet especially in the US then he will be shocked how many bad things have been said about him and especially M-1. They singlehandedly destroyed the legacy Fedor had with all their weird demands and strange comments during the year. So I hope Fedor read this and will tell him exactly what happened. You challenged me to late and I was already committed for the K-1 and don’t blame me because I was calling you out for more than a year but your management company gave all sort of excuses not to fight me…
“When I was belt holder at the time, I challenged Fedor when I was in Japan for the first time just when news came out he signed with Strikeforce. I was able to fight Fedor but he choose Brett Rogers. I can understand that decision because Strikeforce and M-1 want to build him before putting him against me and wanted a sort of tune up fight. After that fight I challenged him again and then all the discussion came; Vadim telling he wanted a special drug testing and calling me a steroid bully and I wasn’t a worthy opponent for Fedor and all those things. The good thing is that M-1 is making so many contradictions that they look like fools, it’s crazy; calling me a steroid bully but express the desire to fight Josh Barnett or how about this, saying I’m not a worthy opponent but choose Brett Rogers as first opponent. So M-1 have to do damage control again (laughs).”
Check out the full interview and the rest of Overeem’s comments on the “Last Emporer” at valetudo.ru.