Alistair Overeem broke down the interim heavyweight title fight that will take place on June 14.
The announcement of the UFC White House card has led to Jon Jones requesting his release from the promotion in a public dispute.
Many believed that it would be ‘Bones’ taking on Alex Pereira at this event despite Dana White’s comments dismissing the potential of the matchup.
While Henry Cejudo was critical of Pereira’s move up, a heavyweight legend believes that things have worked out well for ‘Poatan’.
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Alistair Overeem believes Ciryl Gane is a ‘more favorable’ fight for Alex Pereira
Jon Jones and Alex Pereira made it clear they wanted to fight each other before it was announced that the former light heavyweight champion will face Ciryl Gane instead.
There’s no denying that moving up to face a returning ‘Bones’ would have been a much bigger fight for ‘Poatan’ after he vacated his 205-pound belt.
However, Alistair Overeem drew attention to Pereira’s upcoming clash with ‘Bon Gamin’ being a much more favorable matchup for the Brazilian in his heavyweight debut.
“I think for Pereira, the Ciryl Gane fight is more beneficial,” he told Bloody Elbow. “Gane is more of a striker than a wrestler/submission artist than Jon is. I think it’s gonna be a great fight and more favorable to Pereira.”
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
That being said, even the first fighter to hold world titles in MMA and K-1 kickboxing at the same time struggled to give one man the edge in the striking department.
“Pereira’s going to give away a little bit of weight, but has more experience than Gane,” Overeem said. “But again, beautiful matchup.”
Overeem last fought in 2022 and recently spoke to Bloody Elbow about how his life has improved since he addressed that he was addicted to his phone.
2026-03-13 22:00:00
