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A hard-hitting Heavyweight showdown is in line to headline Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) next venture on big ESPN, as Brett Okamoto is reporting that Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris have verbally agreed to headline UFC on ESPN on December 7 in Washington D.C.
Overeem is currently riding a two-fight win streak, taking out Sergei Pavlovich and Alexey Oleynik in back-to-back outings via first-round knockout (video here). In doing so, “The Reem” reminded every big man that despite going up in age, he still has the skills to pay the bills and the power to put you to sleep.
Prior to Overeem’s mine resurgence, he suffered consecutive knockout defeats to Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou.
As for Harris, he has won three of his last four, as his win over Andre Arlovksi was overturned to a no contest after he failed a post-fight drug test. Since then, though, “Big Ticket” has scored two first round knockouts in just a combined time of 62 seconds.
Most recently, Harris knocked out Aleksei Oleinik in a mere 12 seconds at UFC on ESPN 4 in San Antonio, Texas (see it again here).
This is a huge test for both hard-hitting big man, as a good win streak can put them at the front of a very short line for a shot at the 265-pound title, which will be contested this Saturday night at UFC 241 in Anaheim, Calif.
Early predictions?
Also on the card, Stefan Struve will take on Ben Rothwell, while Cynthia Calvillo and Claudia Gadelha duke it out in women’s Strawweight action. Plus, Yana Kunitskaya will face Aspen Ladd at Bantamweight.