Alistair Overeem vs. Roy Nelson announced for UFC 185

In a rare bit of "Winner vs. Loser" matchmaking, the UFC has announced a heavyweight bout for their March 14th PPV in Dallas, Texas. Former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is set to battle the heavy-handed Roy Nelson at UFC 185, news first broken by the Dallas Morning News and later confirmed by UFC PR man Dave Sholler:

Just in for UFC 185: @Alistairovereem vs. @roynelsonmma http://t.co/fvGpxK8MlR

— Dave Sholler (@Sholler_UFC) January 7, 2015

Overeem (38-14, 1 NC) has been rather disappointing in his UFC career, managing a tame 3-3 record and suffering KO/TKOs in all of his defeats. However, the Dutchman was victorious in his last outing, stopping Stefan Struve in the 1st round with heavy punches on the ground at UFC on Fox 13 in December. Overeem has yet to win consecutive fights inside the Octagon.

Nelson (20-10) suffered a devastating uppercut KO loss to Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night in Japan last September. It was just the 2nd KO loss for "Big Country", whose only other stoppage loss came against Andrei Arlovski in 2008. The 38-year-old has scored KO or TKOs in all 7 of his UFC victories, with all of them spurred on by his powerful fight hand.

It feels like stating the obvious, but this is essentially all about how Overeem performs. This is surely his absolute last chance to make a serious push for a title shot, otherwise he'll likely go down as one of the UFC's biggest busts. On paper, he should be able to outsrike Nelson with ease, but his historically unreliable chin (and defense) has felled him on far too many occasions.

UFC 185 features a main event title fight between lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos.