The UFC has booked a heavyweight contest for the main event of their fight night on September 7th per ESPN. The main event will feature a contest between Alistair Overeem (46-18, 1 NC) and Augusto Sakai (15-1-1).
Sources: UFC eyeing Overeem-Sakai for Sept. 5 https://t.co/bXsLgoj9u1
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) July 14, 2020
One more UFC run for Overeem
For the 40-year old Demolition Man, he’s looking at arguably his last chance to make a run at UFC gold. Overeem came into the UFC with a ton of hype years ago, but has never captured gold.
Despite that, Overeem has put together a pretty solid UFC career. Overeem enters this contest 3-1 in his last four fights. The one loss came in the last ten seconds of a fight that he was winning throughout.
Both of these men rank inside of the top ten, and a win for Overeem would likely pair him against someone in the top five in his next fight, potentially one fight away from a title shot.
Sakai comes into this fight after he’s started 4-0 in the UFC. We last saw Sakai against Blagoy Ivanov back in May where he won a split decision.
Sakai has a pretty solid overall game, and this fight is a big test for him inside the octagon. If Sakai is able to pull off a victory over Overeem, it’s probably time to give him someone near the very top of the division.
The September card is currently booked for the APEX in Las Vegas, but that could shift to Fight Island if the pandemic shuts things back down in Nevada.