Heavyweight contenders Alistair Overeem (#7) and Alexey Oleinik (#9) faced each other today (Saturday, April 20, 2019) inside Yubileyny Sports Palace in Saint Petersburg, streaming only on ESPN+. Overeem was coming off a win over Sergey Pavlovich, while Oleinik had beaten Mark Hunt and Junior Albini.
They touched gloves. They clinched and Oleinik immediately pulled guard. Overeem set up a head kick as Oleinik stood. Oleinik landed a huge overhand athat hurt Overeem. Overeem shelled up as Oleinik swung away. Oleinik rocked Overeem again. Overeem looked for a big knee up the middle that got him clipped yet again, resulting in another cover-up from Overeem. Oleinik clinched and dirtyboxed, punching Alistair in the body. Overeem reversed position and landed big knees on Oleinik. Oleinik reversed position; it wasbody knees vs. body punches as Overeem and Oleinik kept trading clinch places against the cage. Overeem went for a switch knee a couple times. Overeem once again found himself against the cage with Oleinik landing body punches; he found space and two of those knees, curving around the guard, finally cracked the iron chin of Oleinik, who fell backwards to the mat. Overeem followed him to the ground, landing hammerfists as Oleinik turned away until the referee realized Oleinik was done. Great win for Overeem after a very entertaining one-round fight!
Overeem said afterwards that he is very open to fighting Alexander Volkov in the future. That’s would be an excellent matchup. He said he really enjoyed fighting in Russia, and he planned to celebrate with some beers, but not too hard because the next fight could be around the corner.
Results: Alistair Overeem def. Alexey Oleinik via TKO at 4:45 of Round 1
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