It's not the horse meat. Believe me, it's not the horse meat. Alistair Overeem has been champion in Dream, Strikeforce, and K-1. He's also a Pride vet. Back in Pride, he fought some of the best in the world in the 2000s, mostly at light heavyweight, though he dabbled in heavyweight as well - and lost to most of them, compiling a winning record over also rans, but failing to snag a Pride belt. Against the best? He lost to Chuck Liddell, Little Nog twice, Shogun Rua twice, Ricardo Arona, and split two fights with Sergei Kharitonov. He did have two key victories over Vitor Belfort, but that was it. After his Pride run, he started putting on mass. By 2007, he was in heavyweight full time. He looked ripped. Rumours swirled. He was juicing. He had to be. No one puts on 50lbs of muscle that fast. Overeem, for his part, claimed it was a diet that included horse meat. Fighting in Dream and Strikeforce, Overeem never had a problem. Then the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, acquired Strikeforce. While it ran for a while, eventually the company was merged into the big show. Overeem's name was constantly on the tongue of fans. He was expected to hold the belt. Things started off rocky outside the ring. He seemed to dodge an NSAC drug test, providing two drug test samples the NSAC deemed insufficient because at least one was taken by his personal doctor, then left the country. The NSAC went so far as to meet him in London so he could provide a sample in person. Given a conditional license - he would be subject to post-fight drug tests and possibly the heaviest screening a fighter had seen to date - he focused on the cage. There, he met success: he made quick work of former UFC champ Brock Lesnar in his debut. Everything fell apart after that. Expected to face Junior Dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight title, he tested positive for elevated testosterone levels (14 to 1 T/E) leading up to the JDS fight. He lost his license, was suspended, and seriously pissed off his boss. The Star Phoenix newspaper quoted Dana White as saying "I am beyond pissed about this. I'm so (expletive) mad right now I can't even begin ... How (expletive) stupid do you have to be? Seriously dumb. Anybody who's using (performance-enhancing drugs) right now is an absolute (expletive) moron. It's beyond - what's the word I'm looking for - it's beyond belief. It's beyond comprehension. You're an absolute moron, a brain-dead absolute (expletive) dummy. It goes beyond a guy have any common sense whatsoever." After his suspension, Overeem would come back only to be TKO'd by both Antonio Silva and Travis Brown, before finally picking up a win against Frank Mir at UFC 169 in February 2014. In those fights, he looked noticeably less ripped than during his championship run.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
