Alistair Overeem has explained why he’s decided to venture into professional wrestling after previously trashing it as “fake”.

While many expected Alistair Overeem to focus his attention on Glory and his long-awaited return to kickboxing in the next few years, the MMA legend has other plans.

In addition to sticking with Glory, Overeem will also be testing the waters with a run in pro wrestling – something he was notably against less than a year ago when discussing the subject with Ariel Helwani.

Overeem will battle the man formerly known as Braun Strowman in a UK event later this summer and upon returning to The MMA Hour, Overeem explained why his opinion on the sport shifted.

“Life is interesting, let me put it that way,” Overeem said. “Cause on the one hand you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re talking smack and then you’re doing it yourself.’ Not too big a fan of it lately, but again, in my defense, I was a huge fan in the 80s when I was 8 or 9 or 10, 11, 12 [years old]. So it’s been up and down, and now it’s up again.

“I was always, just to remind you, not too flattering about kickboxing guys. I’m kickboxing now. I was kickboxing 10 years ago. I was kickboxing 25 years ago, so that’s a little bit of the up and down thing, right?”

“You need to do [train], otherwise, it’s not going to go too good,” he said. “Of course the MMA background helps cause you’re used to falling and doing all the moves but this is a little bit different. Hats off to the guys [who do professional wrestling].

“I’m confident in my abilities. As an athlete, as a fighter, I just somehow have the ability that if I put my mind to it, I will just kick some ass.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting

Are you excited to see Alistair Overeem wrestle?