Bas Rutten Says Alistair Overeem Lost Confidence After UFC Knockouts

Alistair Overeem’s UFC journey has not come without setbacks; the former K-1 and Strikeforce champion has compiled a 2-2 record for the promotion, dropping knockout losses to Antonio Silva and Travis Browne. His most recent outing was a dominating three round decision over Frank Mir at UFC 169.

After failing a random drugs test in the aftermath of his TKO win over Brock Lesnar at UFC 141, ‘The Demolition Man’ spent 14 months on the sidelines. His return bout against Bigfoot Silva at UFC 156 was frustrating for ‘Reem’ fans, and he got caught by surprise against Travis Browne last August. Overeem’s former trainer and MMA legend Bas Rutten spoke to Submission Radio about his ex-student, Bloody Elbow had the transcript:

“Like I said before, when I talk about this, people (are) gonna say like ‘aww he’s a hater because he left Golden Glory’ and it’s not. I always said it. It’s like when I said he had a glass jaw, people go like ‘aww he’s just saying that’. I said look at his record dude. Look at his record between 2005 and 2007. Shit I think he got knocked out like Five times.”

Overeem certainly has his fair share of knockout losses in MMA, eight to be exact, but it pays to remember that he competes in the heavyweight division. Bas then moved on to the subject of the infamous steroid bust after the Lesnar fight:

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“We know it now, you know. He got caught on steroids, then he got tested the next time he couldn’t use and he lost. His testosterone – I heard, read on the internet, I’m just saying that it doesn’t have to be true but it was out there in the news everywhere – he had a level of One hundred and sixty. So now Nevada says, well that means with prior usage you can’t fight in Nevada anymore. And I think it maybe did something to him mentally, I don’t know”

The Overeem that showed up to fight Silva at Fight Night Boston was looking flabby, slow and lazy. He got punished for being cocky and overlooking Bigfoot, but also for being slightly out of shape. You could credit Reem’s withdrawal from the roids as one of the main reasons for his loss. ‘El Guapo’ continued:

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“Coming back from getting Knocked out a couple of times, it’s a hard one for him you know, and if he can come back, this was just, people were complaining that he didn’t finish Mir. But you have to understand if you get knocked out three times in a row it does something to you mentally, you know, so he played a very smart game. He came in, he said ‘I’m gonna win this fight, will get my confidence back and now I’m gonna go to the next fight’. And now next fight were gonna see what he’s made of.”

Following the win against Mir, Overeem made a confusing call-out when he asked for retired MMA star Brock Lesnar. His next opponent is yet to be announced, but I think that a bout with Junior dos Santos would make a lot more sense than any other.

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The two were originally slated to fight twice before, but the failed drug test scrapped the UFC 146 meeting, as did an injury for the scheduled UFC 160 fight. Perhaps a case of third time lucky? If so, will Overeem’s ‘glass jaw’ be able to handle ‘Cigano’s’ powerful boxing?