Alistair Overeem Responds To Dana White: I’m Still The Guy That Wants To Knock People’s Heads Off

Alistair Overeem is back in the win column with a dominating performance against Frank Mir at UFC 169. The win was by no means outstanding, or even very entertaining, but ‘The Reem’ got the job done with relative ease. Although this was not to the liking of UFC president, who spoke out during a Fox Sports 1 interview regarding Overeem’s 169 showing:

“It was a crappy performance, in my opinion. Then he calls out someone who doesn’t even fight anymore. Awesome. It was not a great night for Alistair Overeem.”

Overeem could well have scored a finish against Mir, although his recent showings against Travis Browne and Bigfoot Silva showed that Reem has a tendancy to blow his cardio looking for the KO. By his own admission, Overeem played it safe, as he spoke during today’s episode of The MMA Hour:

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“Dana’s a very upfront character. I like that about him, I like to know where I’m at. He’s entitled to his opinion, as we all are. Do i think it’s fair? I think it was a very technical performance. It is what it is. I can’t make more of it now. I can understand him, he’s a promoter, he wants to have exciting fights. Ratings matter, fans matter, fans want exciting fights. That is important. “

“I hope he also understands my position. I mean, of course I’m fighting in a loser leaves town match, so of course, for me, and also since the Travis fight, that has been a factor, a lot of things about my cardio. Sometimes, in life, you don’t always get what you want. Of course, I’d rather had punched him out in one minute, but then, I would have gotten, ‘Yeah, but he can’t last three rounds.’ Then maybe I wouldn’t have learned my lesson from the Travis fight.”

White isn’t singling out Overeem here, as he has been critical in the past about guys like Benson Henderson, but this is the first time it has happened with Overeem. He very nearly had the finish against Travis Browne when they fought, and perhaps that and the fact he was fighting for his job had contributed to the lacklustre scrap in Newark.

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“Listen, I’m still that guy that wants to knock people’s head off. But it is important to have that switch. Sometimes it’s not possible. You can want it as hard as you want, and if I look at my history, my last fight, that was my downfall, going for that knockout. So, it’s logical and I hope that viewers back home and everybody watching can understand that.”

Only time will tell about Reem’s full potential in the UFC, and we will know for sure if he gets paired with a heavy hitter in his next bout. His chin has had its fair share of criticism in the past, and a boring style will not do you any favors in the UFC. Let’s hope that ‘The Demolition Man’ can prove us wrong in his next fight.