[Opinion] A Fistful Of Reality: What The Alistair Overeem Failure Means For UFC
December 30, 2011: The UFC’s next heavyweight title match is made clear as Alistair Overeem, in his first match for the federation, defeats Brock Lesnar via TKO in the first round. Lesnar immediately announces his retirement from MMA, explaining that his plan all along was to either win the fight, face champion Junior Dos Santos for the title, and retire win or lose; or he would retire if that never happened and he lost to Overeem. Overeem and Dos Santos is set, and a heavyweight matchup pitting two of the strongest strikers in the heavyweight division is greatly anticipated.
April 2, 2012: Following a strong Wrestlemania card, which saw one of the biggest names of pro-wrestling’s recent past, the Rock, return to face John Cena in the main event, Brock Lesnar returns to the WWE on Raw in Miami. Lesnar offers a handshake to Cena, and immediately follows it up with an F5 for good measure. The picture becomes clear that Lesnar is back with a chip on his shoulder.
April 4, 2012: During out of fight drug testing, a condition required for Overeem due to him being placed on a conditional license, following a bunch of shady developments prior to his fight with Lesnar (The issue is discussed here), Overeem is tested and fails. Needless to say, after all of the different issues with Overeem’s testing prior to his last fight, it would make sense that he would walk on eggshells and not do anything to jeopardize his ability to fight Dos Santos, or to even fight again in the UFC.
Alas, Overeem, like so many other athletes that Jose Canseco famously called Juiceheads, needs his performance enhancing drugs. He is either addicted to them and what they do to his body, or he has terrible judgement. The Reem’s results for an out of fight drug test, detected a testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio of 14-to-1. To break this down, average humans have a 1-to-1 ratio. The Nevada Athletic Commission, which seems to already understand that the athletes involved with the sport utilize illegal substances, allows the fighters a 6-to-1 ceiling. Alistair’s levels were over twice the cutoff point, and one of the highest levels in memory.
This brings up the question what will happen now? The fight was on a packed UFC 146, which is set to feature all heavyweight bouts on the main card. To say that this is one of the more greatly anticipated cards as a whole in a while would be an understatement. For the main event to fall apart, and for the federation to have to scramble to come up with a suitable alternative fighter to headline the show, is not an easy task. Most of the big name heavyweights are already scheduled for fights on the card, upcoming fights, or are injured. This would be a perfect time for Lesnar to come in and take the fight, especially since Overeem was on a conditional license in Nevada when this failure came, which would indicate that the results of his last match should be deemed a no contest. Nevada will probably not do that, but if they are in their right mind, they will not license him to fight on this card, or any cards for a number of months to come. It is obvious from the test results and the actions that Overeem has taken throughout his career that Overeem has been hiding something all along. People have been afraid to speak about the elephant in the room, but facts are facts, and he has finally been caught red-handed.
