Why Alistair Overeem is Pretty Much Dead to Me
Since The Reem tested positive for testosterone, every victory he's picked up in the last few years has been brought in to question.
To think that March was an isolated incident is naive. Looking at his body transformation and the change in his performance in recent years, it's hard not to think that he'd just been lucky not to get caught up until March of this year. And don't get me started on the implications of the whole nonsense between him and NSAC that went on before he faced Brock Lesnar at UFC 141.
I never really cared much about Alistair Overeem; he was never one of those fighters whom I really clicked with or felt the motivation to keep an eye on. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. But then he tests positive for testosterone and receives what is arguably the most laughable slap on the wrist from any athletic commission in recent memory, thus cementing his name on my 'shit list'.
The short and sweet of it is that I question all of his accomplishments over the past few years and I don't think he actually deserves to be where he is today. I'm not saying they should lower his ranking or put him back at the bottom of the ladder for a title shot, as there is no concrete proof that he's used tesosterone or other PED's in the past, but I think his victories are now quite hollow and meaningless. Any success he's achieved through his performances in recent bouts is now kind of a joke and I feel for the fighters who've faced him in these past few years and whom now have to wonder if that tarnish on their record came at the hands of a man using performance enhancing drugs (not to mention the nagging question of, if he was using PEDs, would they have won had he really been clean).
The bright side of it is that all the controversy surrounding Alistair's case has sort of forced the UFC to take a second and actually consider climbing up the mountain of independent testing. So thanks for that, I guess, Overeem.
