Proposed Cro Cop vs. Overeem New Year’s Eve match called off
A proposed rematch between heavyweights Alistair Overeem and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic that would have taken place on Dec. 31 in Saitama, Japan at the Saitama Super Arena during FEG’s “Fields Dynamite!!” event has been canceled.
Overeem revealed to FiveOuncesOfPain.com’s Cory Brady last week that he had signed for the bout. However, reports have surfaced in the last week that Cro Cop never signed the bout agreement for reasons that have yet to be specified.
During a recent press conference to promote “Dynamite,” FEG executive Sadaharu Tanigawa revealed that Overeem vs. Cro Cop II won’t be happening on New Year’s Eve.
“Alistair is begging for this fight but this fight will not go ahead on New Year’s Eve at ‘Fields Dynamite!!’,” Tanigawa informed the press. “We will look to match them up on a different card.”
Cro Cop is still expected to be involved with “Dynamite!!,” which will feature fighters from both K-1 and DREAM. Rumors have circulated in recent days that instead of fighting Overeem, Cro Cop instead could be matched up with former PRIDE heavyweight Sergei Kharitonov.
In other “Dynamite!!” news, officials with M-1 Global have revealed that DREAM middleweight Grand Prix winner Gegard Mousasi will return to action on the card in a K-1 rules fight vs. Japanese kickboxing standout Musashi.
Sam Caplan is the President of Combat Sports Media, LLC, the parent company of FiveOuncesOfPain.com. CSM is a B-2-B outsource solution in the MMA industry and provides PR, web management, and other consulting services to MMA companies. Clients of CSM include the Combat Sports Championships and Showtime.
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well that sucks.
kinda expected this.
FEG is pretty good at advertising fights that haven’t been finalized yet. How many fights got cancelled from Dreams recent GP’s? 10?
Can anyone speculate as to the reason why the organizers do not want the Overeem vs Cro Cop rematch to take place on NYE? Seems strange to me inasmuch as both fighters and their fans want this fight to take place. Interesting speculation that Cro Cop may be pitted against Sergei Kharitonov because another website figures that FEG will schedule Overeem against Kharitonov on this card.
ah son of a..
overeem vs. josh barnett on the affliction card would be a great fight.
Overeem is not under contract with Affliction he has deals with Strikeforce and Dream.
Mirko chickened out
Cro Cop just doesn’t have the balls hehe.