Former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem, who was abruptly cut by the promotion after he was forced to withdraw from a scheduled bout against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, discusses what he perceives to be the motives behind his release, as well as what may lie ahead in his fighting future. Overeem explains the injuries that forced him to refuse the proposed September fight date and says that he remains hopeful in having a future with the UFC.
Alistair Overeem
"Strikeforce realized that I only had one fight left on my contract. So they were like, "Hey, wait a minute. If Alistair wins this fight, he's going to be in the final without a contract." Which, for us would be the golden situation, because then you're in the finals of a tournament without a contract. Well, there were some contract negotiations for an extension in Strikeforce and, basically what happened was, there were a lot of terms in there which we could not live with. One was, exclusively, I had to fight for Strikeforce. So, basically, that would mean I had to let K-1 go, let Dream go, and even the possibility of fighting for the UFC. I mean, I am always a guy looking further (ahead). The UFC is where the top guys are, so that's my ultimate goal, to become the UFC champ. But, basically they wanted to keep me in Strikeforce... Listen, there's two people currently ranked above me and they're both in the UFC. So, of course I want to go to the UFC. I want to fight the top competition and these guys are there. It's not up to me - it's up to, does the UFC want me? I am willing to go wherever the top guys are."