It’s been a memorable run for the UFC in Jacksonville, Fla., but the festivities finally come to an end Saturday night.
UFC on ESPN 8 marks the third fight card in eight days to close out the promotion becoming the first major North American sports entity to begin running events during the coronavirus pandemic.
A previously scheduled main event finally gets a chance to go, and it’s a good one: a heavyweight battle between veteran Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris. Additionally, the co-headliner has the always active Angela Hill returning to meet Claudia Gadelha, and there are several other matchups that make this event worth a look.
UFC on ESPN 8 takes place Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The card airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+.
Without further ado, then, here are five burning questions.
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Can Alistair Overeem hit the reset button one more time?
Alistair Overeem. (USA TODAY Sports)
Stop if you’ve heard this one before: Overeem (45-18 MMA, 10-7 UFC) is looking to get himself back into contention after making a critical mistake to lose a fight he was winning.
Several times over the course of his impressive career, Overeem has gone on remarkable runs, only to have them end with tough-to-watch moments. It’s one of the veteran’s most endearing tendencies, as anyone can relate to a person who puts in hard work, nearly gets the job done, comes up just short, then gets started all over again.
This time, though, things feel a little bit different. Overeem was well on his way to victory over Jairzinho Rozenstruik when Rozenstruik hit a home run in his last-ditch effort and scored the knockout at the 4:56 mark in the final round of their Dec. 7 fight, leaving Overeem with a gnarly lip injury.
And while we’ve seen “The ‘Reem” bounce back before, sometimes better than ever, he also turns 40 on Sunday. Somewhere along the way, this mountain is going to get a little bit too steep to climb. Harris (13-7 MMA, 6-6 UFC) is no joke, so we’re going to find out real fast whether Overeem still has it.