UFC veteran Alistair Overeem in "tremendous" shape ahead of upcoming clash against Badr Hari!

UFC veteran Alistair Overeem is ready to settle his rivalry with Badr Hari once and for all in their upcoming trilogy bout.

Heavyweights Hari and Overeem will collide October 8 at Glory Collision 4 in Arnhem, Netherlands. “The Demolition Man” Overeem was released from the UFC last year, despite four wins in his last six outings. This weekend he’ll return to active competition after a 20 month layoff; however it’ll be in kickboxing, not MMA. Overeem takes on notorious K1 legend Hari. It’ll be their third fight overall, but their first in over thirteen years. Their previous bouts in 2008 and 2009 both ended in finishes, first for Overeem and later for Hari.

Overeem is looking forward to settling their rivalry and moving on to bigger and better things.

“It’s been a minute but again, eager to get back in there, shape is tremendous, phenomenal,” Overeem told Ariel Helwani on “The MMA Hour.”

“I’m just hungry to get back in there, and yes, (my) last fight was a bit ago, but you know you’re fighting in the gym, right? You’re sparring in the gym so it’s not like there’s no activity. It’s not like I’m laying on the couch. I always train, I’ve turned everything up not one but five notches for this fight.”

If he manages to get his hand raised this weekend, Overeem hopes to get a shot at the Glory heavyweight title, which is currently held by fellow Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven.

“And we’re probably going to turn it up two more for the Rico fight,” Overeem continued. “Not looking ahead of things but I do believe I’m going to come out of this victorious with everything I have. And that’s gonna be interesting.”

Hari hasn’t won a fight since 2015, however that doesn’t mean he hasn’t looked impressive in the meantime. He put on a good showing against champion Verhoeven in their two previous fights, before losing due to separate injuries. After finishing a prison sentence in 2014 for a series of offenses, among others aggravated assault, Hari racked up three straight wins followed by six fights with no victories: four defeats and two no contests.

Overeem was originally booked to face off against Verhoeven, but was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. If he manages to get past Hari there’s a good chance that Overeem gets a title shot for his next fight, despite not having competed in kickboxing since 2010 when he defeated Peter Aerts by TKO in Tokyo!