Alistair Overeem has a professional wrestling match booked in July and a kickboxing fight scheduled in October but that doesn’t mean he’s finished with mixed martial arts just yet.
The 42-year-old heavyweight knows his combat sports career can’t last forever but after his release from the UFC in 2021, he still has a desire to compete in MMA at least one more time.
“Absolutely not [done with MMA],” Overeem told The MMA Hour. “Might do one more [fight] or maybe two. It could be one.
“We’ll see what comes about but the calendar’s booked. We’ve got the Badr [Hari fight] and then we’ve got Rico [Verhoeven] after potentially so that will be next year and then we’ll see.”
After leaving the UFC, Overeem wasted no time signing with GLORY kickboxing but an injury prevented him from facing heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven in his return to the sport.
According to Overeem, a persistent back problem caused him to drop out of the fight and now he’ll face former foe Badr Hari in October after they split a pair of bouts while both competing in K-1.
” It was quite severe,” Overeem described his injury. “I had it twice before. Every 10 years. I had it in 2001 and then I had it in 2012 or 2013 it was and then again now. It required a lot of care, a lot of stretching, a lot of treatments, that kind of stuff. Slowly, gradually it gets better.
” It allows me to take a step back and reflect about my life. All fields. So I’ve been doing just that. Now I’m ready to fight. In October, the fight was announced. That is exciting to me. Badr will be in the rubber match. This is going to be an important fight in kickboxing. A big fight for the Netherlands.”
If all goes well in October Overem would like to rebook Verhoeven’s matchup in early 2023. But he will eventually take another MMA fight and then retire.
As far as potential opponents, Overeem isn’t mentioning anybody by name, although he initially scoffed at ex-PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko as a suggestion for his final fight.
“Respect for Fedor,” Overeem said. “He hasn’t fought in a couple of years. Recently, I have been practicing compassion and believe that challenging someone who hasn’t fought in a few years is not something I should do .”
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Emelianenko actually fought longer than Overeem, after defeating Tim Johnson in the first round in Bellator’s October 2021.. This win was eight months after Overeem lost to Alexander Volkov, his last fight in the UFC.
Overeem acknowledges Emelianenko would not necessarily be at the top of his list of opponents, but then again, he could easily have said the exact same about Hari before their October trio.
“[Fedor Emelianenko is] not a fight I would particularly look for and even the Badr fight, in the beginning not a fight I would look for but the closer it gets, the more it becomes a thing,” Overeem explained. It’s actually making me really excited about it.
“It might also occur with the Fedor fight. Although it was not something that I wanted to look at initially, I am now curious. The hype kinds of speeds up, people start talking and it’s like this is pretty cool actually. Let’s go.”
Overeem hinted “there were some talks” with an MMA promotion about another fight but for now he’s staying focused on pro wrestling and kickboxing for the rest of 2022.
Overeem doesn’t regret the time he spent with UFC even though things did not go his way.
“I think the UFC is an awesome organization,” Overeem said. “They’ve always been good to me. Although they haven’t been very nice to me, I find them to be fair and reasonable. I think they’re a really professional organization that’s making the best decisions for the sport and that’s exactly how they should operate.
“It’s all good. It’s a company, and when you deal with one, it feels corporate. The human element kinda disappears. This is how it works. The sport and the business had to be a success. They’re the most successful fight company in the world. I had a lovely 10 years with them. It was a rollercoaster ride.
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