Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos and former heavyweight title challenger Alistair Overeem are no longer with the UFC.
Junior Dos Santos took to Social media to announce that he had parted ways with the world’s biggest MMA promotion.
The news about Alistair Overeem parting ways with the promotion was first released by Mike Bohn of MMAJunkie.
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“Thanks @ufc for a great 12 years! I fought through MMA’s Murderer’s Row to get my shot at the belt. Holding and defending it was one of the great honors of my life. Thanks to every opponent, thanks to every fan and every critic. I’m going to spend some time back at the drawing board, but I’m excited to move on 😉🥊👀 OSS.,” Junior Dos Santos wrote on Instagram.
Junior Dos Santos was on a four-fight losing streak. His most recent loss came against Ciryl Gane at UFC 256 last December. In that fight, he was knocked out in the second round. Prior to that, he lost via TKO to Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC 252. Before that, he was locked out by Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou at UFC Fight Night 166 and UFC on ESPN 3 respectively.
The last time, Junior Dos Santos registered a win inside the Octagon was back in March of 2019, where he knocked out Derrick Lewis at UFC Fight Night 146.
Alistair Overeem’s release is kind of puzzling as even if he lost his last fight via TKO against Alexander Volkov, he was 4-2 in his last six fights.
Prior to losing to Volkov, he was on a two-fight winning streak having beaten the likes of Augusto Sakai at UFC Fight Night 176 via TKO and before that he knocked out Walt Harris via TKO in round 2 at UFC on ESPN 8.
Alistair Overeem vs Derrick Lewis no longer possible
Derrick Lewis recently called out Alistair Overeem following his TKO win over Curtis Blaydes last month. Following Overeem’s release, this no longer seems possible.
“Overeem has been talking a lot of smacks,” Lewis said at a pre-fight news conference held Thursday. “I don’t talk trash to fighters, calling them out this and that. Whenever I hear someone talking trash to me then I say something back. Other than that, I’m not worrying about what’s going on with UFC fighters. I’m not keeping up with these guys.”
Derrick continued, “If Overeem is watching this, man, you still got it. Look in my eyes: You still got it. So do not hang them up yet because I do want a piece of that. I want to clap them cheeks.”