Junior Dos Santos Hopes For Title Shot With Win Over Overeem

After being scheduled to meet over two years ago, heavyweight sluggers Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos and Alistair “The Reem” Overeem will finally do battle in the co-main event of this weekend’s UFC on FOX 17 (December 19, 2015) from Orlando, Florida.

Both Dos Santos, a former UFC heavyweight champion, and Overeem, a former Dream, Strikeforce, and K-1 champion, are knocking on the door of a patented title shot and JDS feels as if a win should warrant him one.

The heavyweight title is set to be defended at UFC 196 in February when champion Fabricio Werdum puts his strap on the line against former boss Cain Velasquez.

“Cigano” has taken on both men before, scoring a knockout over Werdum years ago, while going 1-2 against Velasquez in title fights. That being said, many feel as if “Vai Cavalo” having the title would benefit Dos Santos more, but the Brazilian isn’t worried:

“I think a victory over Alistair Overeem will give me the chance to fight for the title again,” Dos Santos told Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. “It doesn’t matter who the champion is. Actually, I don’t care about Werdum, like I said I don’t pick opponents. I want to fight for the title, it doesn’t matter who the champion is. Him or Velasquez, let’s see.”

As far as Overeem goes, Dos Santos is happy to finally get the fight over with after all of the talk from “The Demolition Man”:

“He likes to talk, to promote the fight, but many things he said don’t make sense to me because who pulled out of the first fight?” Dos Santos said. “It was him because he failed the drug test and he was saying I didn’t want to fight him.”

When the cage door finally closes, who will come out on top?