Alistair Overeem is a guy who divides opinion. The former K-1 World Grand Prix Kickboxing Champion and challenger for the UFC Heavyweight title has historically inspired ire from large sections of the MMA community.
Overeem's trash talking and over-confidence gives people reason to heckle. It probably doesn't help that Overeem is fighting Cleveland native Stipe Miocic in Cleveland. The two are facing off for the heavyweight belt and some stellar Cleveland support came out in the form of a cringe inducing heckler.
My eyes... Difficult to watch the lad attempt a crossover with the Toure chant but sure God loves a trier. He implores Overeem to cancel a photoshoot he has planned for after the fight on Saturday.
The 36-year-old fighter took it all in his stride coming over and hugging his heckler. But that wasn't all, Overeem's admirer reappeared at the press conference the following day. At least he's persistent.
It seems that Overeem can see the funny side of the whole thing. Maybe he's just laughing because he knows he could turn the heckler into a human pretzel and punt him into the atmosphere if he wanted to.
Overeem comes into this fight on the back of a four fight win streak including finishes of Andre Arlovski and Junior Dos Santos. Miocic will defend his belt for the first time after taking the title from Fabricio Werdum with an impressive first round KO in Brazil last May. The fight is set to be an absolute barnstormer, don't blink in this one, it's unlikely to go the distance.
