OVEREEM TO FACE ROGERS IN MAY, NON-TITLE BOUT
It has been nearly two and a half years since Alistair Overeem won the inaugural Strikeforce heavyweight title. It now appears that he will finally return to the United States and fight for the promotion that minted his belt.Overeem on Monday tweeted that he is likely to return at an as yet unannounced Strikeforce event on May 15 to face Brett Rogers.He later told MMAJunkie.com that the fight would likely not be a title defense since Rogers lost to Fedor Emelianenko in his most recent outing. Still, it will serve as his return to mixed martial arts after a year where he focused heavily on K-1 kickboxing bouts. “It’s been too long. Last year was a good year in K-1, but this year, I want to fight in MMA,” he told MMAJunkie. He added that a highly anticipated fight with Fedor wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon because he didn’t think Fedor wanted to fight him and that the top heavyweight might be looking to leave Strikeforce.MMAWeekly.com sources confirmed that the bout between Overeem and Rogers is likely to happen and that a return to St. Louis and Showtime on May 15 is the expected target. A split with the Russian powerhouse, however, doesn’t appear to be on the table; at least, not yet. As of the time of publication, our sources indicated that Fedor is still expected to face Fabricio Werdum on an undetermined future fight card.