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Former UFC heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem recently signed a new deal with Glory kickboxing and is set to compete for the first time since his promotional release. He is set to challenge champion Rico Verhoeven for the heavyweight title at "GLORY: Collision 3." The event is set to take place on October 24 in Arnhem, Netherlands. The news was confirmed by the 41-year-old on Monday at The MMA Hour.
Notably, Overeem had departed the UFC days after a February TKO defeat to Alexander Volkov. This was the second time in four battles that he had been on the wrong side of the result. From 2010, Overeem had strictly competed in MMA with his last kickboxing bout being a TKO win over Peter Aerts in the K-1 Grand Prix 2010 Final. The victory had extended his kickboxing record to 10-4.
Fight against Rico is gonna be big: Alistair Overeem
"Me and Badr fought twice ... he doesn’t hold the title," Overeem told The MMA Hour.
"This is a prestige fight, of course, but he doesn’t hold the title. So of course I’m gonna go as high as possible and that’s Rico. It’s gonna be big. The circle will be complete," he added.
Verhoeven enters the fight on a 14-match winning streak
Meanwhile, Overeem's new opponent whom he will face in October, Verhoeven, is regarded by many as one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time. He will enter the match against Overeem with a 58-10 record. Moreover, the 32-year-old is on a 14-match winning streak which includes wins over the likes of Badr Hari, Hesdy Gerges, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Tarik Khbabez.
"I want to congratulate Alistair on getting the fight," Verhoeven told The MMA Hour.
"I think this is the fight everybody wants but not everybody gets. I think it’s a huge deal for him but for me it’s just another day at the office, so it’s gonna be fun," he stated.
Alistair himself announced the fight on social media where he shared a poster announcing the date and other details. "@glorykickboxing Collision 3 October 23," he captioned the social media post.