At the age of 36 and with several MMA belts to his name, former kickboxing champion Alistair Overeem finally gets a shot at UFC gold when he takes on heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic on Sept. 10 at UFC 203 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Overeem, with 17 years as a professional MMA fighter, knows he'll have his hands full with the Ohio native making his first title defense in his own backyard, yet the Dutch striker has been in plenty of big fights.
Look no further than his UFC debut at the end of 2011 against former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Overeem (41-14, 1 NC) stopped Lesnar in his tracks with a lethal body kick, followed by an array of punches to stop the fight in the first round at UFC 141 in Las Vegas.
No matter what happens Sept. 10, Overeem doesn't foresee a rematch with the WWE superstar.
Between Lesnar's first appearance in the Octagon in five years — a unanimous-decision victory over Mark Hunt at UFC 200 in July — and his two potential drug-policy violations, "The Reem" says a second fight doesn't seem to be in the cards.
"It was a dominant performance. But there was no X-factor in it, there was no knockout. There was nothing that really happened," Overeem said Monday in an exclusive interview. "Yes, he won. It was a little bit of a lackluster win. But props to him. Hopefully maybe we get to scrap again some day. I don't think that's gonna happen. But a man can have hope, right?"
When pressed as to why he's pessimistic of a rematch, Overeem said of the 39-year-old Lesnar: "Because he's getting up there in age and I just don't believe you can have that performance and ... if he won his fight without any issues, I could perhaps see that fight happening. But I can't see that fight happening."
As to whether he wanted the rematch, Overeem smiled and said he always wants to make a fight happen.
But he doesn't believe Lesnar wants it.
"The funny thing is, Brock has never mentioned my name. Even before the fight, he probably accepted and didn't know who I was," he said. "But he never talked about me or mentioned my name. I could kind of see in his eyes he was not really happy with the fight when it happened.
"I think I'm the bringer of bad news and he's not really interested in that again. He doesn't like to get hit. I like to strike."
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