ALISTAIR OVEREEM VS. AUGUSTO SAKAI
A Top 10 matchup in the big boy division headlines this weekend’s fight card as veteran contender Alistair Overeem squares off with streaking Brazilian Augusto Sakai.
The 40-year-old Overeem enters off a second-round stoppage win over Walt Harris in May and having won three of his last four, each by way of stoppage. Over the last five-plus years, the only men to best “The Reem” inside the Octagon are champion Stipe Miocic, top contenders Francis Ngannou and Curtis Blaydes, and new Top 5 talent Jairzinho Rozenstruik, while he’s turned back the likes of Junior Dos Santos, Fabricio Werdum, and Aleksei Oleinik.
Sakai arrives in Las Vegas with four wins in as many UFC appearances and riding a six-fight winning streak overall. After graduating from the Contender Series, the 29-year-old has posted victories over Chase Sherman, Andrei Arlovski, Marcin Tybura, and Blagoy Ivanov, alternating between punishing finishes and grinding out decision wins.
This is a perfect piece of matchmaking as the pairing fits with exactly where each man is at the moment and the outcome will propel the victor closer to their goal of reaching the top of the division.
For Overeem, it’s a chance to knock off another hopeful on a nice run of success, while picking up a second straight victory and building momentum in his quest to make one more run at the heavyweight title before wrapping up his career. For Sakai, he steps into the cage with one of the most experienced and established talents in the division and the exact type of tenured fighter he needs to beat in order to be viewed as a legitimate contender going forward.
