It seems Alistair Overeem may have finally found his footing in the UFC after dominant consecutive wins over Stefan Struve and Roy Nelson. ‘The Reem’ s surging hype after his collaboration with the UFC in 2011 went down like a lead balloon after the brooding heavyweight was dismantled by Antonio Silva and Travis Browne in two back-to-back losses. The former K-1 champ was also toppled by Ben Rothwell in 2014, but ‘The Demolition Man’ has rekindled a spark of championship hope with his recent Octagon victories.
In an interview with Abs-CBNNEWS, The Dutch kickboxing standout expressed his interest in a showdown with Junior dos Santos, just as he did in a recent chat with Bloody Elbow.
“The personal choice, if I’m honest, is Junior Dos Santos. He’s not booked for a fight, I’m not booked for a fight. I will probably hear about this in the next two weeks, but logic suggests he’s the next opponent. There’s nobody else that makes sense,” he said. “I’m just gonna wait to see what the UFC is gonna do, but for me, I don’t see anybody else out there. JDS is the gate-keeper… That’s what everybody knows,” Overeem said.
The two heavyweight titans were originally set to square off for UFC 146 in 2012, but Overeem’s failed pre-fight drug test extinguished any hopes of their championship tilt.
Junior dos Santos has only succumbed to the unrelenting pressure of Cain Velasquez in his UFC career, dropping his heavyweight title at UFC 155 and failing to recapture it at UFC 166. Since the Brazilian’s devastating loss to the Mexican-American champ, ‘Cigano’ emerged victorious in a five-round grueling war with Stipe Miocic at UFC on FOX 13. Dos Santos also crumpled Mark hunt with an acrobatic spinning hook kick at UFC 160.
With both Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos jumping back into the winners column, perhaps we’ll finally see the two heavyweight strikers lock horns in the foreseeable future.
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