Filed under: UFC
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — As long as the media spotlight is on the UFC ahead of the network debut on FOX this Saturday night, the organization figured it might as well make the most of the attention by getting Alistair Overeem and Brock Lesnar to sit down for a minute to promote their heavyweight showdown at UFC 141 on December 30.
And promote it they did, with former UFC heavyweight champ Lesnar flexing and smirking through much of the brief but memorable press conference and former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem promising to “tear this guy apart, piece by piece.”
Lesnar, who had 12 inches of his colon removed back in May after a second bout of diverticulitis, said it took “about six hours” for him to recover from surgery, and responded to questions about whether he’d slimmed down as a result by flexing his biceps and estimating his current weight at around 278 pounds.
“I avoided the surgery for as long as I could,” he said. “I made the decision. When you have to go under the knife and have some of your intestines removed, it’s a big deal.”
Though the bout will mark his UFC debut, Overeem certainly didn’t appear to be in awe of the bigger stage or his big opponent. When it was pointed out to him that he had a significant experience advantage over Lesnar, the Dutch fighter calmly replied that in fact he had “about ten times as much” experience as his American counterpart.
As he told reporters afterward, that experience might manifest itself when he attempts to test Lesnar’s ability to take a punch.
“It took me like 50 or 60 fights to get used to that,” Overeem said. “Now I don’t care if I get hit. If I get hit I’m going to give two back. But that took a while to get there. He’s not there yet, but still, don’t underestimate anybody.”
It was the first time Overeem had come face to face with Lesnar, he said, and he assessed the former champ as a “big guy, like me. I thought he was taller, from the UFC poster, but he’s actually shorter than me.”
Overeem called the Lesnar fight “a dream match-up,” and praised his new training home at Las Vegas’ Xtreme Couture gym as the perfect environment to prepare for a former NCAA champion wrestler like Lesnar.
“I’m ready for anything. Brock is a great wrestler. He’s a big wrestler, he’s a strong wrestler, but I’m a big guy myself. I’m not worried.”