It should come as no surprise that Alistair Overeem, the UFC’s biggest Dutch star, is in the main event of the promotions debut in the Netherlands on May 8th. The matchup itself, though, came a bit out of nowhere, and it was reported by Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter on his Twitter account today:
Little Saturday breaking news for you. Alistair Overeem’s opponent for UFC Rotterdam main event will be teammate Andrei Arlovski.
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) February 20, 2016
Arlovski and Overeem are training partners at Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they underwent career resurgences. Overeem had been inconsistent in his UFC run, especially after failing a random drug test, before Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn completely changed his style to being more of an outfighter when he moved to their gym. Arlovski had been doing even worse, on a losing streak full of knockouts, before being rebuilt by some of the sport’s top coaches. Fights between friends can be weird, but if Arlovski’s win over former sparring partner Travis Browne is any indication, it doesn’t affect him.