UFC on ESPN 8 concluded with Alistair Overeem getting his hand raised. The Dutch mixed martial artist would have been on a 4-fight win streak after his victory over Walt Harris.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
But a controversial TKO loss to Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 2019 didn’t let it happen. In a recent interview, Overeem said that he wants to run it back with the “Bigi Boy.”
Last Saturday, Overeem showed the world why he deserves to compete against the best. At 40 years old, “The Demolition Man” demolished the rising star, Walt Harris. Alistair said that he has the gas tank for one more title run as he senses that his career is coming to an end.
“I see it (the end) coming. My first fight was in 1997, never had a break, always trained. So that is 27 of training, 23 years of fighting. After this contract, it will be 25 years of fighting and I think it will be a very nice moment after 25 years to not do that anymore,” Overeem told ESPN.
So far Overeem had an illustrious career. He has competed in MMA since 1999. “The Reem” has fought some of the best talents the sport had to offer. Apart from that, he is also one of the highest-paid athletes in the sport. His last fight alone earned him a whopping $400000.
Alistair Overeem wants a rematch with Jairzinho Rozenstruik
With four fights left in his contract, Overeem wants to fight the Surinamese again. Both men fought each other in December 2019. The fight itself was a complete domination by Overeem. But a drastic error in the final seconds of the fifth round proved fatal for the Dutch.
Although he was not out of the fight, Overeem did suffer a gruesome lip injury. The referee stopped the bout while Overeem was getting up.
In an interview with Luke Thomas, Overeem said:
“I was not dissatisfied about the Rozenstruik performance…You’re up five rounds. It was two punches that he connected. In my opinion, a wrong stoppage. The ref should have never jumped in. When he jumped in, there were zero seconds left. I actually thought it was the end of the fight because I remember the “clap clap” in the last 10 seconds.
“And then you know I got dropped, straight back to my feet and it was over. I thought I actually won that fight. And then I was like ‘Sh*t! They stopped it? TKO?.’ Then you have Rozenstruik talking about that he KOed me, that guy got lucky. I would love to run it back with him. I fight him again, I’m gonna finish him.”
Overeem refrained from revealing whether he would fight Rozenstruik differently.
