The trio of UFC events within seven days culminated with Alistair Overeem getting a second round TKO over fellow heavyweight, Walt Harris just minutes before his 40th birthday.
The MMA veteran, Overeem, clearly had a lot of respect for Harris due to the recent tragedy that Harris has suffered with losing his stepdaughter. However, at the post-Fight press conference, Overeem did say that when they stepped in the cage it is just a sport and it wasn’t personal, so he was out to get the job done.
“It’s a sport, it’s a job. Of course, Walt has been through personal tragedy, which is awful but it’s a sport, I see it as a sport. It’s a game, right? It’s a way of making a living.”
The fight wasn’t plain sailing for Overeem who faced adversity earlier in the fight getting dropped and cut by Harris in the first round by a barrage of punches. Overeem confirmed he was definitely in trouble during that situation but managed to fight through the adversity.
“Well I was definitely in trouble because I got dropped, that’s number one. Number two I got cut. You have a man who’s 275 [pounds] standing on top of you trying to finish you so definitely we were in trouble.
He’s very athletic, very fast, very powerful, so we were in trouble for a little bit. Fortunately, I was able to reverse the situation and get the finish on Walt.”
Hitting the big four-oh and having accomplished some of the best accolades in combat sports including the Strikeforce title, the DREAM title and the K-1 World Grand Prix title, it seems to be the elusive UFC title that’s keeping Overeem motivated at this stage in his career.
“Well we’re still hunting for the title and also I would say I’m in the last phase of my career. So those two things are a little bit on my mind. Finish up the career and one more run at the title.”
Finally, Overeem spoke on the strange situation of fighting within an Empty Arena and how he felt about the unusual circumstance. The Dutchman was actually very excited about competing in an empty arena saying it reminded him of his earlier fights.
“Strange enough, I was fired up about it. This was fight number 92. It kind of reminded me of my earlier fights. I have to go all the way back to ‘97 when there’s like 200 or 300 people in the audience. This was a little bit different though and I don’t know, it motivated me.
During a pandemic, first time, so to me it was very interesting tonight. No audience. Still you got tension, still you’ve got the nerves going through you fight day. I don’t know but it was different. It was cool. I liked it. I enjoyed it.”
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