Morning Report: Overeem claims JDS is ‘afraid’ of him; Henderson would’ve accepted TUF 17 spot opposite Jones

A few months ago, during an interview with FUEL TV’s UFC Tonight, a sidelined Alistair Overeem threw down the gauntlet for his rival, UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. To paraphrase, Overeem claimed dos Santos was terrified …

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A few months ago, during an interview with FUEL TV’s UFC Tonight, a sidelined Alistair Overeem threw down the gauntlet for his rival, UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. To paraphrase, Overeem claimed dos Santos was terrified at the thought of fighting him, to the point where “JDS” feigned ignorance of the English language when Overeem approached him at the UFC Fighter Summit.

Understandably, “The Reem’s” comments didn’t exactly sit well with dos Santos, and since then the champion has been informing anyone with a microphone about his disdain for the massive Dutchman. But that doesn’t mean Overeem is backing off his claims. Quite the opposite, actually.

“Well, Junior dos Santos says all kind of things that don’t really make sense,” Overeem mulled in a recent interview with mixfight.nl. “First he begged to Dana White he wanted to fight me, so as a fighter I accept such a challenge right away. Now he’s saying that I don’t deserve a title fight. He has to make up his mind, as he’s changing his story all the time. The same stuff he was saying about me going to the school of Chael Sonnen. I never made the fight between us personal and I never bad mouthed him, the only thing I said was that I think he’s afraid of me, which I think he still is.

“When I signed with the UFC, I could of easily [gone] for the title shot right away but I chose to fight Brock Lesnar, so in no means [am I] talking myself into a title shot.”

Overeem also reiterated that while the instant title shot would be nice, he’d prefer to fight as soon as possible once he returns.

Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva recently called the Overeem out, and he actually appeared receptive to the idea. “The Reem” referred to the match-up as “unfinished business” from the pair’s days in Strikeforce, so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities to see an Overeem-Silva booking before Overeem and dos Santos can get a chance to air their grievances.

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6 MUST-READ STORIES

Overeem: dos Santos is afraid of me. Speaking to mixfight.nl, sidelined UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem reiterated that his rival, Junior dos Santos, is afraid of him, while saying of dos Santos’ recent criticism of the Dutchman: “He has to make up his mind, as he’s changing his story all the time.”

Henderson believes Sonnen-Jones is bad for sport. While he would have no qualms helping Chael Sonnen prepare to fight Jon Jones, 42-year-old legend Dan Henderson made his thoughts on the controversial match-up clear: “I absolutely think it was a bad decision for the sport. It just makes the sport lose a little bit of integrity.” Henderson also revealed the UFC never approached him for the TUF 17 coaching gig opposite Jones, as he would have accepted.

The MMA hour. Ariel Helwani and The MMA Hour return to your life with a packed line-up featuring Dan Henderson, Mark Hunt, Kyle Kingsbury, Derek Brunson, managing director of GLORY Sports Marcus Luer and our own Dave Meltzer.

UFC 154 ticket sales slow, likely due to injuries. Tickets sales for UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre’s return to Canada at UFC 154 are surprisingly sluggish, despite the event being just three weeks away. UFC director of Canadian operations Tom Wright told The Vancouver Sun any lack of interest is likely Canadian fans waiting to see if injuries diminish the card, as injuries ravaged the last Canadian event, UFC 149.

Brunson explains TUF fiasco. Strikeforce fighter Derek Brunson was forced to withdraw from the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter at the last second due to a grievance with Showtime, despite already investing heavily in a five-week training camp. Strikeforce matchmaker Sean Shelby had given Brunson clearance to try out for the show after it became clear Strikeforce would not be able to secure Brunson a fight until 2013.

Video chat with Tate for $4.99. In a potentially regrettable decision, former Strikeforce champ Miesha Tate is offering 1-on-1 video chats to fans that pay $4.99 per month (or $24.99 a year) for a membership on her website. There is no way this plan can backfire.

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MEDIA STEW

JDS showing his confidence in the nicest way possible: “There is just one baddest man on the planet, and I think I am this guy now.”

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World Series of Fighting hasn’t even held their first event yet, but it’s hard not to be impressed with what we’ve seen from them so far. Fantastic debut card top-to-bottom, and solid promos for their stars. (Check out Rumble Johnson’s video here.)

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This is pretty shameless, but hey, it’s the holidays.

(HT: MMA Mania)

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The Diaz brothers were clearly robbed.

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It’s things like this that make me grateful the internet exists.

(HT: Bloody Elbow)

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THE WAITING GAME

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BRAZIL DON’T PLAY

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ONLY ON HALLOWEEN

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CONGRATS!

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Announced yesterday (Wednesday, October 31, 2012):

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FANPOST OF THE DAY

Today’s Fanpost of the Day sees Steve Borchardt: Making sense of the GSP/Anderson Silva/Jon Jones superfight triangle

Silva is in the enviable position of being the common denominator in both of these superfight scenarios. He potentially has the opportunity be part of two of the biggest fights in history if he plays his cards right. A win over St. Pierre would serve to make Silva a hotter commodity than ever going into a subsequent superfight against Jon Jones. In that case he’s looking at two paydays that would redefine Anderson Silva money.

For Jones the superfight also makes sense. He’s heavier than Silva and possesses a considerable reach advantage. What’s more, one of his main strengths is wrestling, which is an area where Silva has struggled at times in the past. Jones is young enough in his career and has been dominant enough thus far that he’d likely be able to bounce back from a loss to the greatest fighter of all time. If he wins though, then he gets to lay claim to that lofty title himself.

But would it really prove Jones was the greatest if he beat Silva? The term “pound for pound best” gets thrown around when discussing superfights but that’s a misnomer. “Pound for pound best” refers to is an imaginary scenario whereby we could determine the best fighter in the world if all things were equal. The problem with this is that when it comes to differences in size, all things will never be equal. That’s why weight classes were implemented in the first place. It’s also why the idea of a superfight crowning the mythic pound for pound best is flawed. It’s impossible to know who the truly better man was when a larger fighter beats a much smaller one.

Which isn’t to say superfights between GSP/Silva and Silva/Jones shouldn’t happen. Both are exciting fights that would do huge business. It isn’t often a fight comes along that captures the public’s imagination the way both of these fights could. When it does it’s a promoter’s job to move heaven and earth to make it happen. Despite his misgivings, St. Pierre will likely acquiesce if the price is right. Silva is already on board to fight GSP so expect the long awaited superfight between the two to finally come to fruition next year if the welterweight champ beats Condit in a few weeks.

As for Jones and Silva, they are both likely playing coy in order to drive up their asking price. Silva will be 38 in April and knows the clock is ticking on his career. With Jones eying a move to heavyweight it would appear next year might be the last chance for the two to face off against each other. Dana White has gone so far as to “guarantee” the fight will take place but there are still a lot of moving parts in play before it can become a reality.

If all the pieces fall into place the UFC has the potential to do two of its biggest pay per view numbers of all time in 2013. Superfights might not always be fair from an athletic perspective, but they can make a lot of money for all parties involved.

At the end of the day that’s usually what makes the world go round. Or in this case, the fighters step in the cage.

Found something you’d like to see in the Morning Report? Just hit me on Twitter @shaunalshatti and we’ll include it in tomorrow’s column.