Evidently, Alistair Overeem puts little stock in the current hierarchy of the UFC’s heavyweight division.
In a peculiar interview with Sportskeeda, Overeem, the UFC’s seventh-ranked heavyweight, sounded off on the outlandish idea of entertaining a rematch with 37-year-old former heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar.
“Yes, I expressed that after my bout with Frank Mir. I do believe that Brock Lesnar will be coming back, I don’t want to call it from retirement, but he is a huge draw, big guy, sells tickets. So that’s a fight I would be interested in.”
Although it seems painfully obvious to most, Overeem doesn’t seem to recognize that the notion of a rematch with Lesnar seems both far-fetched and irrelevant.
Lesnar retired following his lopsided TKO loss (kicks to the body and punches) to “The Demolition Man” nearly three years ago at UFC 141. He’s since rejoined the WWE, where he’ll challenge John Cena for the heavyweight title at SummerSlam on Aug. 17 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Overeem first began his campaign to land a rematch with Lesnar following his win over 10th-ranked former heavyweight champ Frank Mir at UFC 169.
UFC President Dana White quickly nixed Overeem’s suggestion regarding Lesnar by saying the following at the UFC 169 post-fight press conference, per FoxSports.com.
Brock Lesnar is not coming back. Brock Lesnar is not fighting. I mean, does he want to come back? I mean, we’ve talked about him wanting to come back. He feels like he wasn’t 100-percent while he was here and he feels like he sold himself a little short and all the stuff that I’ve told you guys before, but no, he’s not (coming back).
Meanwhile, Overeem switched camps in anticipation for his upcoming bout with Ben Rothwell at UFC Fight Night 50.
The former Strikeforce heavyweight champ made the trek from the Blackzilians camp in Boca Raton, Florida, to Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in April.
In the wake of the change, Overeem has offered some less-than-flattering insight on his former Blackzilians‘ teammates and coaches.
“I do think that my losses were contributed to by my team at that time, because you need to have good sparring partners, good coaches that take care of the direction of the fight, the overall training regimen. I do think that was lacking in the two losses.”
After pummeling Lesnar in his promotional debut, Overeem lost his next two fight via knockout. Antonio Silva first stormed back to knock out Overeem with punches at UFC 156. Fellow Jackson’s MMA stalwart Travis Browne then knocked out Overeem with a front kick and punches at UFC Fight Night 26.
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