Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem confirmed to Sherdog.com that he will meet former Pride Open Weight Grand Prix winner Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at Dream 6 on Sept. 23 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. “The fight is definitely happening, and I’m really glad,” the 28-year-old Dutchman said. “I am already training very hard, and I’m 100 percent certain that it will not go the distance. I don’t care if it is going to be by knockout or by submission, I don’t want the fight to go to a judges’ decision. I want to finish Mirko Cro Cop.” Overeem would not divulge if he had received a contract yet for the heavyweight bout. Should the fight come to fruition, it would be Filipovic’s first appearance inside a ring since his first-round obliteration of overmatched Japanese grappler Tatsuya Mizuno in March. Overeem, meanwhile, has stayed busy in recent months, as he knocked out Korean Ssireum fighter Tae Hyun Lee in June and submitted dangerous New Zealand kickboxer Mark Hunt in July.
The rivalry between Cro Cop and Overeem turned personal when the Dutchman started calling out Filipovic publicly, beginning with an interview on Sherdog.com on June 12. Overeem has remained persistent about making the bout happen, challenging the Croatian on the house microphone after each one of his wins.
