Overeem hitting Mir (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

Andrei Arlovski has accused Alistair Overeem of asking the to fight  him, and putting their coaches in a bad spot, but the latter continues to deny that’s the case.

Arlovski and Overeem will battle in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 87 on Sunday, which will be hosted by Rotterdam in the Netherlands. As soon as the fight was announced, it turned heads throughout MMA, since the heavyweights both train out of Jackson – Wink MMA in Albuquerque.

Well, Arlovski claims he’s heard Overeem requested to fight him, and on the latest “UFC Tonight“, “The Reem” said this (quote via FOX Sports press release):

“He keeps going on about this. I was not given a choice. Lorenzo texted me that they wanted me to headline this fight in Rotterdam. They wanted me to fight Arlovski. I said I was fine with it. He’s not my buddy. We don’t even train together. I don’t have a problem with it.”

“He’s training with Greg and Wink. I’m training with Chad Smith, the main wrestling coach, and the main BJJ coach, and I flew in some other coaches who I’ve been working with throughout my career. These are people I get along with very well and have good working relationship with.”

Overeem (40-14) is riding a three fight winning streak and is coming off a stoppage win over Junior dos Santos. Arlovski (25-11) had his six fight winning streak snapped by Stipe Miocic in January.