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MANILA, Philippines – The much-awaited encounter between Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem is finally happening as it has been booked for UFC on FOX 17 on December 20 (December 19 in US).
The scheduled 3-round heavyweight match will serve as the co-featured attraction to the lightweight championship clash between current titleholder Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone, which takes place at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.
Dos Santos (17-3), a former UFC heavyweight champion who occupies the No. 2 spot in the division’s rankings, was last seen inside the Octagon when he had a grueling 5-round battle against Stipe Miocic in December 2014.
On the other hand, Overeem (39-14) was at the cusp of vying for the UFC heavyweight championship after having a successful promotional debut in December 2011 by thwarting Brock Lesnar in round one.
With the aforementioned victory over Lesnar, Overeem earned the right to challenge then-champion Dos Santos, but he failed a pre-fight drug test for elevated levels of testosterone that sidelined him for 9 months.
The fight was set again in May 2013, but an injury forced Overeem to withdraw from the engagement.
Upon his return to action in 2013, Overeem immediately dropped back-to-back bouts at the hands Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Travis Browne.
To compound his misery, the disappointing setbacks pushed Overeem aside in the heavyweight title picture.
Currently ranked at No. 8 in the UFC heavyweight standing, Overeem is riding high on a two-fight winning streak, scoring a first-round knockout victory over Stefan Struve in December 2014 before dominantly outpointing Roy Nelson three months later.
Overeem told Rappler in April that a win over the 31-year-old Brazilian power puncher could lure him back into the title mix.
“To be honest, I only think about one name and that is Junior dos Santos. We’re supposed to fight a couple of times,” he said. “It just makes sense. We should go for a dance.”
Aside from the Dos-Santos-Overeem duel, UFC officials also announced a three-round lightweight tussle between Nik Lentz (25-7-2, 1 NC) and Danny Castillo (17-9). – Rappler.com
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