Alistair Overeem Withdraws from Glory Title Fight vs. Rico Verhoeven Due to Injury

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.

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