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UFC Heavyweight Alistair Overeem earned a title shot when he beat Brock Lesnar at UFC 141 in 2011. Unfortunately for Overeem, the state of Nevada thought he needed to take a random urine test in March. Since he popped for an elevated Testosterone:Epitestosterone ratio, Overeem has been unable to even apply for a license to fight until early 2013.
While his client trains and waits, manager Glenn Robinson of Authentic Sports Management spoke to MMA Weekly about Overeem's plans for his return.
"Based upon when he gets licensed and it also depends on if the winner of dos Santos and Cain fight comes out unscathed. What if the winner comes out and has an injury and doesn't want to fight for eight months? So there's a lot of ‘what ifs,' so right now we're just focusing on getting licensed, and once we get licensed then we'll figure out who we're going to fight," Robinson stated.
"He would like to fight as soon as possible after he gets licensed. We're appreciative that Dana (White) and Lorenzo (Fertitta) want him to fight for the title, and we're thankful for that, but right now the focused is to get licensed."
Something tells me that Overeem and his manager have a very pressing reason for wanting to fight sooner rather than later -- there's nothing like a 12 month unpaid vacation to get a fighter desperate for some cash flow. He's also taking very little risk by asking for an immediate tune up fight rather than waiting for a title shot -- other than champion Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, who will be facing JDS at UFC 155, there's no one in the UFC HW division that Overeem really needs to worry about.
That calculus changes when Strikeforce champ Daniel Cormier finally makes it to the UFC but in the meantime, Overeem has very little to fear from most of the UFC HW division.
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