Alistair Overeem: Junior dos Santos is afraid to fight me

Alistair Overeem hasn’t fought since beating Brock Lesnar at UFC 141 last December. The former Strikeforce heavyweight champ tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone prior to his scheduled May fight against UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos and was replaced. Overeem recently met with Dana White to patch things up after his positive test created a mess, and White said things went well.

Overeem might not be able to fight until late December, but he’s open to facing the top competition when he is cleared. He just doesn’t think dos Santos wants to face him.

“If they want me to go for the title, I’m going to be ready for that,” Overeem told MMA Junkie. “If they don’t, I’m also going to be ready.

“He can talk all he wants,” Overeem said of dos Santos. “I know he’s very happy that fight didn’t happen, and I know he’s afraid to fight me. He also knows that I’m the biggest threat out there to him. He knows when he fights me, there’s no escape from it.”

If dos Santos doesn’t want to fight Overeem, it’s for a legitimate reason: He thinks Overeem is a cheater. Dos Santos said as much a year ago and his suspicions were validated by Overeem’s positive test.

We know that dos Santos is willing to face opponents who he suspects is cheating, so he probably won’t shy away from facing Overeem. This comes down to Alistair just trying to get into JDS’ head.