Don’t expect the relationship between UFC President Dana White and heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem to mend itself anytime soon.
According to a report from Ariel Helwani on UFC Tonight, White spoke to Overeem last week following his lopsided win at UFC 169, and in doing so offered Overeem an upcoming five-round main event bout to be contested against the 33-year-old’s elusive rival, Junior dos Santos, in Brazil.
According to White, Overeem turned down the offer, then turned down a subsequent offer to fight dos Santos in a three-round co-main event bout in Las Vegas.
“He wants nothing to do with dos Santos,” White told Helwani. “He’s literally hiding from JDS … but he had no problem calling out Brock Lesnar who hasn’t fought in 2 years and who is in WWE.”
Overeem, who currently is on vacation in Jamaica, has yet to respond to White’s allegations. Although is this is not the first time in recent weeks White has publicly put the Dutchman on blast.
Following an utterly dominate performance at UFC 169, in which Overeem landed 139 significant strikes to Frank Mir’s five — an astounding disparity which qualifies as the fourth largest total strike differential in UFC heavyweight history — White said of Overeem’s victory, “It was a crappy performance, in my opinion.”
“He fought safe,” White told FOX Sports 1. “I think he could’ve finished him. Not a crowd pleasing fight.
“He comes out with a crappy performance and he calls out a guy who doesn’t even fight anymore. Awesome. Just to top off an awesome night for him, he calls out a guy who doesn’t even fight anymore. So, not a good night for Alistair Overeem.”
Update: Following the report, Overeem responded to MMAFighting.com about why he turned down the opportunity at this time.
“I’m hurt,” he said. “Rib problem. So first [I] need an ETA on recovery time. [It] would be unwise to accept any fight before knowing exactly what’s up. [I] wouldn’t want to pull out of any fight [due to] being unfit, especially an anticipated fight as this one.”