Alistair Overeem will go down as one of the greatest heavyweights to compete in mixed martial arts.
But he has yet to wear UFC heavyweight gold.
Over the years, Overeem has held titles such as the Strikeforce belt, the K-1 crown and DREAM championship, becoming the only fighter to hold three titles at the same time. He is also one of just two to win a belt in both MMA and K-1.
However, his track record in the UFC is a little up-and-down.
Overeem signed with the promotion back in 2011 and scored a victory over Brock Lesnar that year. It appeared he was set to rise through and fight for the belt, but back-to-back knockout losses to Antonio Silva and Travis Browne halted his run.
In 2014, Overeem returned with a victory over Frank Mir. He was again finished, though, by Ben Rothwell a few months later.
After that defeat, Overeem went on a four-fight win streak that included finishes of both Junior dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski. That pushed him into a title bout with Stipe Miocic, but he was stopped in the first.
Since 2017, Overeem is 5-3 including a May finish of Walt Harris.
With the division in kind of an uneasy situation at the moment, Overeem could find himself near the top once again.
Miocic remains the champion after defending against Daniel Cormier. However, Cormier is set to retire and Jon Jones has made it known he wants to move to the division.
How about Overeem vs. Jones? That would be quite the welcome party for the former UFC light heavyweight king.
If Overeem can get by Augusto Saki this Saturday night, he would do well to call out “Bones” and demand he face him. One of the premier heavyweight strikers of all-time against one of the premier strikers in MMA history.
You can bet UFC president Dana White could sell that fight.