After retiring from the UFC in 2021, Alistair Overeem picked up what seemed like a a huge win over his old rival Badr Hari in kickboxing promotion Glory last October, but it’s now emerged that he failed a drug test, and that changes everything.
As a result the 42-year-old Overeem has been suspended for a year and his win over Hari has now been amended to a no-contest ruling.
“Alistair Overeem has been removed from the GLORY rankings and his fight again Badr Hari is ruled a “No Contest” due to a violation of GLORY’s anti-doping rules,” Glory said in a statement. “His suspension is for 12 months, starting at his last fight – COLLISION 4. And he must return a percentage of his wages.”
The fight with Hari had been a trilogy encounter, with the two having first locked horns back at Dynamite!! 2008 in Japan, where Overeem emerged victorious via KO in the opening round, only for Hari to then get revenge at the K-1 World Grand-Prix semi-finals the following year via TKO in the second round.
Overeem had long been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs back then due to the large, muscular heavyweight physique he developed from his previously significantly leaner light-heavyweight frame, leading to him being nicknamed ‘Ubereem’.
However, since Overeem was sticking to competing in Japan at the time where there was far less drug-testing, there was no proof of any wrongdoing and he’d eventually return to competing closer to home with Strikeforce and then the UFC, by which point it has to be said he had visibly become less of a physical specimen than before.
Then in 2012 Overeem was suspended by the NSAC for nine months due to having unusually high testosterone levels, but beyond that he didn’t run into any other issues during his decade long run in the UFC, which ended in 2021 after a TKO loss to Alexander Volkov.
At the time it seemed like Overeem’s long career may finally have come to an end, but then he resurfaced in Glory and it now remains to be seen whether he will decide to compete again once he’s served his year-long suspension.
