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Alistair Overeem has remembered his UFC debut win over Brock Lesnar and other memorable fights of his career leading up to his upcoming bout with Alexander Volkov on February 7.
A former UFC heavyweight title challenger, 40-year-old Alistair Overeem fought twice in 2020. He plans to keep the sequence going in 2021, aiming to get another title shot before retiring.
Currently the fifth best-ranked heavyweight in the UFC ranking, Alistair Overeem will face No. 6 Volkov in the headliner of the first UFC Fight Night event in February.
Preparing for the fight, Alistair Overeem watched a video of his 24-year long career highlights while offering insights about the most decisive moments. Joining the UFC and debuting against heavyweight legend Brock Lesnar was one of the most cherished memories of "The Demolition Man".
"The UFC, at this moment, is the biggest promotion in the world. And then, yeah, the whole of Vegas was just going entirely nuts, but all I can think of is: I'm just excited to fight Brock, he just really motivated me to to get into the UFC, to fight him and take a shot," recollected Alistair Overeem.
Watching the footage of the fight against Lesnar at UFC 141, Alistair Overeem breaks down some key moments leading up to the notorious liver kick that got Lesnar down.
"Here, I actually got cut by the first jab that Brock landed, and blood, right at this moment, is dripping in my eyes. And from this moment on, I could only fight with one eye. And the first knee lands, second knee lands. So, this is something Brock has never felt before. And here I'm kind of setting him up for the liver kick. It's an extreme pain which you can't deny, and it hits you one or two seconds after, and it immobilizes you. So you cannot respond anymore. And that's the moment where you're going to be finished," explains Alistair Overeem. "To pull off a victory of this magnitude - because Brock's a huge guy, huge opponent, [it's my] first fight in the UFC, debut fight. It was, it was amazing."
When is Alistair Overeem retiring?
With an MMA career spanning through four decades, Alistair Overeem knows that he will have to hang up his gloves at some time soon. However, the Dutch heavyweight believes he can still make a final struggle for the long-desired UFC belt.
"I'm still improving: even at 40, I think you can clearly see that in my fights. I'm still on a learning curve. But I have to be realistic. I'm going to have a couple more fights, and then I'm going to hang up the gloves. If I win the belt, then the mission is completed. One final run," wrote Alistair Overeem.
