Alistair
Overeem has been forced to pull out of his heavyweight title
fight with Rico
Verhoeven at Glory: Collision 3 due to injury. Glory announced
on Wednesday that the heavyweight superfight will not go down at
the Oct. 23 event.
Rico
Verhoeven will still remain on the card, according to the
promotion, and a replacement for Overeem will be revealed in the
near future. Overeem released a statement regarding his withdrawal
via Instagram.
“I deeply regret that I have to pull out of the fight against
Rico
Verhoeven Oct. 23. I’ve never pulled out a fight before and
trust me, this decision was hard to make. I’ve been dealing with
the injury for over a month,” Overeem wrote. “Two days before the
press conference, a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t even able to walk
straight.
“After some treatment I felt much better. And since I’ve never been
a quitter, I wasn’t going to quit now. I went back in camp. But…
the injury got worse again and I could not even fulfill a complete
training session.
“Yesterday my coaches, my medical team and myself had to make the
decision to pull out. Oct. 23 I was supposed to give the fans a
show! I wanted to make sure that everybody in the arena and the
ones at home watching got what they came for: an entertaining,
high-level fight. Even if I was at 90% now, or 80% maybe even, I
would have gotten into that ring. But I’m at 40% and that’s not
enough.
“Fighters get out there. We train hard, work hard. There’s a lot at
stake. Our sport can get you injured. Not only in the ring, but
unfortunately also in preparation.
“I hope to get some understanding from you guys. Will be back
soon!”
Glory Collision 3 takes place Oct. 23 at the GelreDome in the
Netherlands. The pay-per-view event can be purchased exclusively at
glorykickboxing.com.