A training room takedown from Alistair Overeem resulted in Jon Jones injuring his knee last week and his fight with Daniel Cormier being postponed until January, and while Greg Jackson has attempted to downplay the incident, other fighters have now voiced their disapproval at the way ‘The Reem’ conducts himself during fight camp.
Resurgent light-heavyweight star Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson trained with Overeem at the Blackzillians camp and he claims in a new interview with Fighters Only magazine that the former DREAM, Strikeforce and K-1 Champion intentionally tries to hurt other fighters in training.
“Greg Jackson says it wasn’t on purpose, but I know the man and when he was here he was always hurting somebody,” Johnson said. “Accidentally on purpose. And it ain’t because he’s clumsy, he ain’t clumsy, he would just hurt you.
“I’ve seen the guy do it. I’ve seen him basically bullying and stuff.”
That’s a bold claim from ‘Rumble’, but just a few days after Jones’ injury, another fighter from Greg Jackson’s camp, Andrei Arlovski, is also now claiming that he too has just been hurt by Overeem while training for his next fight in just a few weeks time.
“A couple of days ago I sparred with Overeem and learned the same outcome by my own experience,” Arlovski tells www.sports.ru. “Usually sparring partners don’t try to inflict real damage to each other, but at one moment Overeem kneed me really hard in the stomach. In a real fight I could have been KO’ed after that.
“I rushed to a hospital to make sure that my ribs are not broken. Thank God, everything was all right, though initially me and my coach, we were afraid that [My] fight with Bigfoot [Silva] bout would have to be cancelled.”
Overeem left both Golden Glory and The Blackzillians under less than ideal circumstances, and given that he’s barely started training at Jackson’s, the fact that he’s had two bad training incidents with Jones and Arlovski in the space of a week doesn’t exactly bode well for his future there.
Overeem is currently in training for his fight with ‘Big’ Ben Rothwell which will serve as the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 50 on September 5th.
He’s coming off a decision victory over Frank Mir back in February, but before that had suffered back-to-back KO defeats against Antonio Silva and Travis Browne which came after having served a nine month suspension in 2012 for having elevated levels of testosterone.
