I fought Brock Lesnar and got KO’d by Francis Ngannou – but no one gave me a tougher fight than ‘Vai Cavalo’
Alistair Overeem has named Fabricio Werdum as his toughest opponent.
‘The Demolition Man’ is a combat sports legend who won multiple world titles in MMA and kickboxing before walking away from fighting in 2023 after an epic 25-year run.
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Overeem famously knocked out Brock Lesnar in his UFC debut before beating Frank Mir, Sergei Pavlovich and several other heavyweight contenders to earn a title shot.
The 44-year-old suffered 15 knockout losses during a career that saw him take punches from Stipe Miocic, Chuck Liddell, Mark Hunt, Vitor Belfort and many more big-hitting MMA icons.
Overeem previously told talkSPORT that Francis Ngannou is the hardest puncher he’s ever fought after being put to sleep by the Cameroonian KO artist in 2017.
Now he’s named someone else as the toughest opponent of his career.
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“I think Werdum was tough,” Overeem said when Luke Rockhold asked him to name his toughest opponent during a recent appearance on the .
“He’s a guy who has multiple plans and that’s tricky.
“I fought him three times. He surprised me in the first one. I had just come out of surgery and was not 100 per cent. Okay, that’s an excuse.
“Still, he got me there and got a lot of confidence from that fight.
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“In the second fight, he was talking so much smack. That was a little hurdle.”
Overeem first fought Werdum in the opening round of the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix in 2006.
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‘Vai Cavalo’ tapped him out with a kimura inside four minutes and it wasn’t until five years later that Overeem got his revenge at a Strikeforce event in 2011.
The Dutch fighter levelled the series by unanimous decision before they completed their trilogy of fights in the UFC six years later.
Once again, Overeem walked away with a victory with some help from the judges, who had him winning their third fight by a majority decision in 2017.
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Werdum was a UFC champion at the peak of his powers, and he recorded massive wins over Cain Velasquez, Fedor Emelianenko and Alexander Gustafsson.
The Brazilian submission specialist is probably the toughest opponent for a lot of people he fought in MMA – but Overeem wanted to give a special mention to Ngannou, too.
He added: “Who else? Francis was strong."
“That was one mistake and I’m in the locker room.
“I had a game plan, but it was just one mistake. I was gonna attack his base and then made one attack too much. I overcommitted.”
Ngannou went on to become a UFC champion after beating Overeem, but he hasn’t fought in MMA since defending his belt against Ciryl Gane in January 2022.
At the start of 2023, ‘The Predator’ left MMA’s premier promotion following a contract dispute.
Since then, he’s signed a deal with PFL and made millions in boxing bouts against former heavyweight world champions Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
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Ngannou will return to MMA on October 19.
The 37-year-old will face 6ft 8in KO artist Renan Ferreira, who earned the matchup by stopping Ryan Bader earlier this year.
“It’s an exciting fight,” Overeem said.
“It’s going to be do or die for Francis because he has two losses.
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“Even though the Fury fight was a beautiful performance, two losses.
“Now he has to come back and make a statement.”
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