On Tuesday, it was announced that former Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem (35-11, 1NC) had officially signed on with the Ultimate Fighting Championship promotion.‘The Reem’ will make his Octagon debut on December 30 against former UFC champ Brock Lesnar in Las Vegas.
Some details of the negotiations are starting to surface with the Dutch fighter himself speaking to MMAFighting.com about signing with the UFC.
Overeem says that he was offered an immediate title shot but turned it down to stay active, and that as part of the negotiations, he will not compete for K1. Which also means that he will have to abdicate his DREAM heavyweight title also.
How long has this been in the works for?
Alistair Overeem: It’s been in the works for, I would say, the last couple of weeks. I know that the parties had found a common ground to work on, the talks were positive and slowly they came together in the last couple of weeks, which resulted in this deal.
Are you still able to fight for K-1?
No, I will only be fighting in the UFC.
Was Brock the only fight offered to you for your debut?
I got offered to fight for the championship belt but that would mean I had to wait, because of course dos Santos is fighting Velasquez Nov. 12, it’s going to be a great fight, then probably these guys are going to need some healing time, relaxing time, so November plus six months, that will probably be May. I’m a fighter, I like to be active, so then some names came rolling out and Brock Lesnar was among them and I think it’s a dream match-up. The fans wants to see it; I want to see it. I’m very excited about this fight, so I immediately said yes.
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