Walt Harris Announces Headliner Fight Against Alistair Overeem on May 16

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The wheels for the Ultimate Fighting Championship are turning again, and an upcoming event now has a new main attraction.

Walt Harris (13-7, 1 NC) appeared on Instagram on Wednesday, where he explained that he will be taking on Alistair Overeem (45-18, 1 NC) in the main event of an upcoming card on May 16. The location has yet to be officially disclosed, but it may be held at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, Calif. As the fights would take place on Tachi-Yokut territory, they would not be subject to the ban handed down by the state.

A UFC event on May 16 was previously scheduled as a Fight Night card in San Diego, but California shut down all combat sports events until June. There is no word of whether the original headliner of Dustin Poirier vs. Dan Hooker will still be preserved.

The two heavyweights have been matched up twice in the past. They were first scheduled to square off atop UFC on ESPN 7, but Harris withdrew from the fight to search for his missing stepdaughter. After a few months, Harris came back ready to face Overeem at UFC Fight Night Portland in April, but the event was scuttled out of fears of the coronavirus.

Harris sports a 100 percent knockout rate in his wins. In those 13 knockouts, 11 have taken place in the first round, while he has never won a fight that went the distance. A previous decision victory over Andrei Arlovski at UFC 232 was later overturned when Harris tested positive for banned substances, although the suspension was reduced when Harris proved it was due to tainted supplements.

Overeem will be looking to bounce back from a devastating defeat at the aforementioned UFC on ESPN 7 card. Down on the scorecards with four seconds left in the match, Jairzinho Rozenstruik landed a massive right hand that split the lip open of “The Demolition Man” and forced referee Dan Miragliotta to intervene and call a stop to the fight. Before the loss, the Dutchman improved his finish rate to 89 percent by knocking out Sergey Pavlovich and Alexey Oleynik each in the first frame.