UFC veteran Alistair Overeem recently stated that he is not interested in facing MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko in his retirement bout. The former K-1 kickboxing champion said he would take one MMA and kickboxing match before retiring, but is not interested in Fedor and explained the reasoning.
Alistair Overeem was released from the UFC in March last year. His latest MMA bout was a month prior when he took on Alexander Volkov at UFC Vegas 18. Overeem had been with the UFC since 2011 and received one title shot against Stipe Miocic. Unfortunately, he lost after getting knocked out in the last minute of the first round.
Even though he is now released from the UFC, ‘The Demolition Man’ is not done yet with his combat sport career. He explained his retirement plan during a recent interview with Tim Wheaton at BeyondKick.com. He said that he would like to have one more match in MMA and kickboxing. When asked whether he will fight Fedor Emelianenko, Overeem quickly said no.
“No, no, no. Fedor is what, 47, 48? I have the most respect for him. I think he’s a legend in the sport. I’ve known Fedor since 2000, so that’s twenty-two years. There was a desire to fight him in 2010 in Strikeforce. That didn’t materialize, I don’t know why. And now I’m just beyond that. I wish him all the best. I actually consider him a friend. He’s a good man.” Overeem said.
The 42-year-old has big hopes and explained further regarding his final MMA match.
“There might be another opportunity to do another MMA fight. Because MMA requires a good farewell as well … I don’t know. It’s also dependent on the promotion. The UFC is behind me so it’s not going to be a UFC fight. It will most likely be one of the other promotions. I do have a particular scenario in mind, it would be a big stadium, like fifty-thousand people. So that’ll narrow it down for you; what stadium and where. It’ll be something along those lines that I’ve envisioned for myself.” Overeem added.
Fedor Emelianenko might be a good opponent for Overeem as he is also planning to have his last match. However, the heavyweight great already locked his eyes on one target. He is aiming to face former opponent Ryan Brader, who knocked him out in 35 second back in 2019.
“For me, [Ryan] Bader remains the number one goal for now. They (Bellator) didn’t contact me, no one told me the news, I also learned about it from the Internet, from the media. Whether it is inflated, whether it attracts attention. But for now, I’m preparing for Bader.” Fedor said in a Russian interview.