Update ; looks like Reem vs Duffee is MAYBE a go...

Less than two weeks before FEG's Dynamite!! 2010 show, Alistair Overeem finally knows who he will be facing on the card.

His opponent? Former UFC prospect Todd Duffee.

Duffee hinted at fighting Overeem on the Dec. 31 card late Tuesday evening on his Facebook, and since then MMA Fighting has confirmed with multiple sources close to the bout that both parties have officially agreed to the fight. Duffee deleted the status update shortly after posting the news on his Facebook page.

While Overeem, the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, was on hand for a pre-fight press conference in Japan on Wednesday, FEG is only expected to officially announce the fight sometime after Christmas.

It's a curious decision for the 25-year-old Duffee, 6-1, who reportedly turned down a chance to fight Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva on short notice in St. Louis and who has not fought since losing via knockout to Mike Russow at UFC 114 in May. He was released from the organization in September.

"The biggest problem I have with Todd Duffee is his attitude," UFC president Dana White told MMA Fighting following Duffee's release. "You guys don't see it. You don't know. I deal with tons of guys. We have hundreds of guys under contract and I've had thousands of guys under contract over the last ten years and Todd Duffee, to me, doesn't seem like he wants to be in the UFC. He doesn't like being in the UFC. Let him go fight in the smaller organizations and work his way back up, if he even wants to work his way back up and get back into the UFC. He just came off a knockout. He got knocked out in his fight and he's got a horrible attitude. He's got a horrible attitude. He can still go back and train and fight in these smaller leagues and work on his skills and his attitude."

Duffee had recently agreed to fight Abe Wagner at Titan Fighting Championship on Jan. 29. He is still expected to honor that commitment, unless he is physically unable to do so after the Overeem fight.

Meanwhile, Overeem, 33-11 (1 NC), won the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals earlier this month in Tokyo. This will mark just his second MMA fight of the year. He successfully defended his Strikeforce heavyweight title, which won't be on the line for this fight, against Brett Rogers in May.

Other fights signed for the traditional New Year's Eve show at the Saitama Super Arena are Jerome Le Banner vs. Satoshi Ishii, Bibiano Fernandes vs. Hiroyuki Takaya, Marius Zaromskis vs. Kazushi Sakuraba and Josh Thomson vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri. You can check out the full fight card here.

The event will air live in North America on HDNet.



Edit - Now Around The Octagon says otherwise ; http://www.aroundtheoctagon.com/?p=7967

something tells Me he won't be physically able...

I love how they just take a fight with a few weeks notice.

chances duffee doesn't get payed? lol

killerofchicken wrote:

chances duffee doesn't get payed? lol

I would hope he knew to get half up front either way.

It's off according to new sources but this could be misinformation because of the visa thing.

http://www.mmafa.tv/home/blogs/duffees-manager-confirms-fight-against-alistair-overeem-at-dynamite.html
according to Duffee's manager, the fight is still on

Hope the fight ends up happening

Yea I would like to see this fight. It would be a lot of testosterone/horse meat in the ring. Both guys have power and some what weaker chins. Ubereem would most likely knock him out early.

Not sure why these jap promoters are always waiting till the last minute to sign a fight. Who wants to fight prime overeem on a 5 day notice? Sounds like time to call Gary Goodrich?


I feel
like we've been crushing dreams lately when it comes to Alistair
Overeem. LiverKick.com has barely been up a week and we've been able to
assure you that Bobby Lashley would not fight Alistair Overeem, Satoshi
Ishii and were pretty skeptical of Todd Duffee happening. Overeem's
people seemed less-than-confident of the fight happening after all of
the nonsense, and apparently as of today, the fight is officially off.
We haven't been able to officially confirm what happened this morning,
but all signs are indeed pointing to Todd Duffee turning down the
contract at the last minute.
Around the Octogon has decided to pit their credibility for this story (note the one comment from "Monte Cox"). As always, grains, salt, use them.

Todd Duffee and DREAM officials had a verbal agreement in place for
him to face Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem at Dream
Dynamite 2010 on New Years Eve. But when he received the contract this
morning the money wasn’t right and Duffee decided to pass on the fight.
ATO learned of the situation earlier today through a source close to
Duffee

If I were Dream, I would have tried to match Reem vs Semmy, K-1 rules.

that sux, oh well at least Alistair can compete for SF early in the year, right?

Ariel tweeted yesterday that the ATO report was wack. Is this new?

The report that it was off was already updated in the original thread. I merged the two topics. It should be noted that Monte Cox is the only reply and he says the fight is on. The ATO story right now is very dubious. Ariel shot it down on twitter a day ago.

It's off....it's on.....it's off.....it's on. WTF is the deal with this fight? Less than a week to go, so my guess is it doesn't happen.

This last report was from the 23rd and has been debunked.

Yep this is still on according to Ariel. Sounds like Hornbuckle/Ryo may be off though

Yeah I heard Jordan breen said Dan has had the flu but Dream didn't want to announce it was off till the last minute.

if hes got the flu then what's the deal, he should be ready by fight time, especially to fight Chonan.

The reem vs duffee fight is still on

FEG still has not officially announced Overeem-Duffee but Duffee pulled out of his booked fight for a January 28th card on HDNet, so this must mean the fight is on. The lack of official announcement makes me think that there is a holdout for money from Duffee's camp.


MMAFA.tv has learned through sources close to the negotiations that Tim Sylvia, currently the highest-profile free agent, will be stepping in to replace Todd Duffee against Abe Wagner at Titan Fighting Championships 16. The Titan Fighting Championships card will be televised live on HDNet on Friday, January 28, 2011.

Abe Wagner, whoever that is, can't catch a break. Sylvia maybe a tougher fight.

I do wonder what will happen to the HW Divisional rankings if Duffee somehow wins.

Ut oh, I see a Reem KO

Maybe Duffee can move and jab enough to win a decision though.