“It Was a Very Bad Decision By the Referee”- Alistair Overeem Demands a Rematch

Alistair Overeem is one of the most decorated fighters in MMA. ‘The Reem’ has been a champion in multiple organizations. However, he is yet to realize the ultimate goal in the UFC. In 65 fights as a professional, Overeem has been a part of some extremely close fights. 

The Dutch fighter is the one who usually dishes out the punishment. However, in his fight against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Alistair absorbed a lot of damage. The fight was eventually stopped in the fifth round with a few seconds to spare. 

Alistair Overeem gunning to make things right with a rematch against Rozenstruik 

‘The Demolition Man’ took to Twitter to voice his opinion on his fight against Jairzinho Rozenstruik. He tweeted saying, “I schooled him. With all due respect, it was a very bad decision by the ref. in my opinion. Waving it off with zero seconds left. This one needs to be run back.”

In the fight, Rozenstruik landed a staggering 109 total strikes with an accuracy of 47%. Furthermore, he landed 89 significant strikes over the course of the fight. Alistair arguably won the first two rounds. However, Rozenstruik came back stronger in rounds three and four. 

The last round was probably the deciding factor in the fight. Towards the end of the last round, as Overeem was backing up against the cage, a venomous right hand from Rozenstruik landed clean and dropped Overeem on the canvas. Though the Dutch fighter got back up to his feet immediately, the referee stepped in and stopped the fight. 

This has not sat well with Alistair, who demands that they should run the fight back. Since his loss to ‘Bigi Boy,’ Overeem has bounced back with two impressive wins over Walt Harris and Augusto Sakai. Both have come via stoppages. At 40-years of age, Overeem still has a lot of fight left in him. 

Jairzinho, on the other hand, lost one fight to Francis Ngannou since his win against Overeem. A stunning TKO win against Junior dos Santos got ‘Bigi Boy’ back in the win column.

Rozenstruik and Overeem are ranked third and fifth in the heavyweight division, respectively. A rematch between the two would make perfect sense at the moment.