Mirko Cro Cop: Alistair Overeem owes his excellence to something that’s dirty and unpermitted

Gone but not forgotten, Mirko Cro Cop shared thoughts about Alistair Overeem‘s UFC 156 fiasco. Left high kick extraordinaire criticized Overeem for being too arrogant during the build up for the fight with Antonio Silva, which had a direct influence on his performance inside the Octagon on Saturday night. More than anything, Filipovic stated that Overeem showed signs of someone who just got ‘off the juice’, adding that The Reem owes his excellence to something “dirty and unpermitted”.

This is not the first time Mirko Cro Cop offers his opinion on Alistair Overeem. The feud between the two dates back to Dream 8, when Overeem declared war on Cro Cop’s testicles. The fight was ruled a no contest after Filipovic was not allowed to continue.

Here’s what Cro Cop had to say about the Reem (via MMA.tv):

“I wasn’t surprised by Silva’s victory at all and I had believed he would win,” said Cro Cop. “I don’t want to come off as a smart-ass or say I knew it all along, so I’ll explain why I’d believed so. First, Silva is a big tough guy with a huge heart who had demolished Fedor and he needs no better reference than that, and Alistair hugely underestimated him and belittled him with his arrogant statements, so this mobilized Silva in the best possible way. Second, Silva is a natural heavyweight, and Alistair – for the first time since way back in 2007, when he began to gain huge weight – fought without the drugs he had used constantly for years, including testosterone and all the other s— that goes with it.

Watching the weigh-in, I saw that his muscles mass was nowhere near his usual, he had the weight, but he wasn’t nearly as carved out and defined, since he couldn’t take anything because he was watched by the Athletic Commission. This also reflects on the psyche of a man who’s been using stuff to increase his strength, endurance, pain tolerance and aggressiveness for years, and now there was none of that. Alistair is an excellent fighter, but he still owes that excellence to something that’s dirty and unpermitted, and, in the end, very dangerous to health.

I don’t think he was concerned by that, he wanted success at any cost. And the third thing is, Alistair had behaved so arrogantly that someone needed to put him back in his place. His belittling of Silva was repulsive, saying that after beating up Silva he’d go for the belt, and at the weigh-in and entering the arena he acted like he invented the fighting sport, and he’s been behaving with so much arrogance lately that I’m glad Silva put him back in his place and taught him a lesson!

Congratulations Silva, from the heart!”