Over the weekend, during the UFC Chile broadcast, we learned that the UFC had made a pretty significant adjustment to the UFC 225 main card. This adjustment saw Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes‘s heavyweight contender bout bumped from the main card to the prelims, and Holly Holm and Megan Anderson’s featherweight contender bout moved to the main card in its place.
Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Overeem explained why he’s not too bothered by this change to the UFC 225 main card.
“I was a little bit surprised with the decision,” Overeem said (transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMAMania). “But when I think about it, I can see where UFC is coming from, they want to build the women’s featherweight division. My friend and teammate Holly Holm being a big name, so she shouldn’t be on the prelims anyway. For me, personally I don’t have a problem with the decision. It’s going to be on free TV, and it might be on a bigger audience, right? UFC understand the television stuff and I understand if it’s going to be a bigger picture.”
“It’s all good,” Overeem added. “I’m just there focusing on my performance, my focus has been really high and I’m just going to put on my energy to put on a best performance whether it’s on TV or pay-per-view, they have their reasons and it’s all good.”
While Overeem believes that Holm deserves this main card opportunity, he’s also happy to fight a little earlier in the evening, as it means his fans in Europe won’t have to stay up as late to watch him fight live.
For the record I have no problem with the decision because now people in Europe don't have to stay up late and the sooner the better.
— Alistair Overeem (@Alistairovereem) May 20, 2018
“For the record I have no problem with the decision because now people in Europe don’t have to stay up late and the sooner the better,” Overeem said in a Tweet, shortly after this UFC 225 lineup change was announced.
Do you think Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes belong on the UFC 225 main card?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/22/2018.