It’ll be a quick turnaround for Alistair Overeem, who is coming off a shocking TKO loss to Ben Rothwell, when he steps back into the Octagon on December 13 at UFC on Fox 13 to take on fellow ranked heavyweight Stefan Struve, according to the UFC’s official Twitter account.
It has been a slippery slope for the former Strikeforce heavyweight champ since defeating Brock Lesnar in his UFC debut nearly three years ago.
He is 1-3 in his last four fights, with every UFC loss coming by way of knockout.
While every loss is disappointing to a world-renowned talent like Overeem, there really wasn’t any reason to ring the alarm bells considering the losses came to bona fide heavyweight contenders in Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Travis Browne.
However, opinions began to change after seeing “The Reem” get clobbered and danced on by Rothwell, a highly underrated yet inconsistent heavyweight.
After the bout, UFC President Dana White told MMA journalist Ariel Helwani during an interview on Fox that “we’ll see what happens” when asked if he wanted to see Overeem get another shot in the Octagon. He later clarified his statement the following week during an appearance on UFC Tonight, per MMAFighting.com: “He’s still ranked in the top-10. He’s still one of the top-10 heavyweights in the world, and we’ll get him another fight.”
For Overeem, things won’t get any easier against Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve, a promising heavyweight contender plagued with health problems. The Dutchman capped off a four-fight win streak back in 2012 with a highly impressive second-round TKO victory over Stipe Miocic.
He would then go on to lose to Mark Hunt before the discovery of an enlarged heart and a leaking aortic valve forced him to step away from fighting. His Octagon return was slated for July 5 at UFC 175 against Matt Mitrione, but the fight was called on the evening of the event after Struve fainted in the dressing room.
He has since been cleared by doctors to compete.
UFC on Fox 13 takes place in Phoenix, Arizona, at the US Airways Center. Lightweights Jamie Varner and Drew Dober are expected to be in action.
According to UFC Tonight’s Helwani, per MMAFighting.com, a heavyweight showdown between former UFC champ Junior Dos Santos and Miocic is also under consideration for the event.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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