Alistair Overeem spoke with Ariel Helwani on today’s The MMA Hour and during it, he took some shots at pro wrestling, CM Punk, and Brock Lesnar.
According to the former UFC Heavyweight Champion, pro wrestling is lame.
“It’s lame, it’s not even a sport…it’s lame, it’s bad acting, it’s just lame. Sorry to all the fans of WWE. I’m just being honest, I’m giving my opinion. Free country right? I think it’s lame. I hadn’t seen it for 20 years, I knew it was there. Never watched Brock fight, I never watched CM Punk fight…why did nobody warn CM Punk what he was getting into? Of course, he can’t fight in the UFC. Of course, he cannot do that. You should’ve been more honest. You should’ve warned that guy about what he was getting himself into. That man got mentally destroyed in the octagon. If you look at his WWE stuff, I never watched his WWE stuff, but if you look at it you can already predict it beforehand. This man is going to have a bad experience in the UFC.”
Overeem continued by noting that the situation would’ve played out for Punk – he was going to win and fight someone tougher or he would lose and eventually get hurt.
Punk lost his first pro-MMA fight back at UFC 203 in Cleveland, Ohio against Mickey Gall via first-round submission. In his second bout, he lost to Mike Jackson by decision at UFC 225.
Overeem then shifted to Lesnar after Ariel pointed out Lesnar had a run in WWE before going to UFC. Overeem stated, “are you really going to stick up for that guy? Ariel, we’re having a little bit of a disconnect here.”
He was asked whether Lesnar had success in the UFC before he got sick with diverticulitis. Overeem responded with, “pre-USADA.”
Regarding Overeem’s comment about USADA, which is the UFC’s anti-doping partner, he is claiming that Lesnar was using PED’s and that was the reason for his success.
Lesnar’s win at UFC 200 in 2016 over Mark Hunt was later overturned after he tested positive for hydroxy clomiphene, which is not a steroid but is still a banned substance since it is used in coordination with a steroid cycle. This marked the first and only time that Lesnar had fought while being tested by USADA.
Overeem beat Lesnar at UFC 141 in 2011, which led to Lesnar retiring from MMA for the first time and going back to WWE.
.@AlistairOvereem tells @arielhelwani he's not the biggest fan of professional wrestling… 👀
"It’s not even a sport. It’s just lame. It’s bad acting and it’s just lame."
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— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) August 23, 2021