MMAfighting
For both participants in the UFC 141 main event, life outside the cage has been even more hectic than the limited time spent inside it of late. Maybe that's why neither is terribly thrilled about the prospect of talking about it at length.
With former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar getting back into action for the first time since having twelve inches of his colon removed, and Alistair Overeem in the midst of a battle with the Nevada State Athletic Commission over licensing issues -- all while also trying to see to his ailing mother back home in the Netherlands -- the year-end pay-per-view could have easily been dubbed UFC 141: Outside Distractions.
But with the two men set to square off in Las Vegas on December 30, at least they can relate to one another's struggles on some level. Take, for instance, Lesnar's response to Overeem's drug-testing woes on Monday's UFC 141 media call.
Though the former champion said he's remained blissfully ignorant of most of Overeem's issues with the NSAC, thanks in part to his isolated training camp and general disdain of the internet, Lesnar said he knows what it's like to have people peppering him with questions about drug tests and suspicious muscle mass.
More Coverage: UFC 141 Fight Card | UFC 141 Results
"I've been dealing with the same accusations my whole life," Lesnar said, calling it "part of the lifestyle...I've been used to it for many years now."
Overeem, too, seems to have become numb to the questions and whispers about his weight gain and almost cartoonish physique, even if he's known to be a little more congenial about those questions than Lesnar.
"Everybody has a right to ask whatever they want, and I have a right to respond or to ignore," said Overeem. "The thing is, I'm very busy with my career. It's not only just training, it's a lot of other stuff on top of it, which is assembling the team, PR, doing all these interviews, so I'm very occupied with that. I simply don't have the time to get into all these allegations. Usually they're done over [the] internet, people I don't even know and have never even met."
Both men also seem to have to their own unique no-go lists when it comes to pre-fight questions from media. For Lesnar, it's the repetitive questions about his health, his surgery, and his comeback from diverticulitis that he only has so much patience for these days. He played along for a little while on Monday's call, admitting that there was "nothing easy" about his recent struggles, but when asked to expand on those issues he quickly found his breaking point.
"I've answered a million questions about my health here," he snapped at one reporter. "That's the best you can come up with today? I feel great. I feel very, very good."
Overeem, on the other hand, continued to guard any and all information about his life inside the gym as if it were a matter of national security. The Dutch heavyweight instantly shut down any question about who he was training with or how he'd adjusted to moving his camp from Vegas to Holland in order to be closer to his mother, who is still recovering from cancer treatments.
It got to the point where UFC PR man Dave Sholler essentially asked reporters to stop wasting their own time by asking Lesnar about his health or Overeem about his preparation. Too bad those still seem like the most interesting topics less than two weeks out from the fight.
But if you're keeping score of outside distractions in the lead-up to this bout, it would seem to be Overeem who's far ahead. Lesnar's health issues might be more serious than some wrangling with the NSAC, but he's also had more time to deal with them. Overeem's had to move his training camp, deal with the emotional drain of a sick mother, and jump from one doctor's office to the next just to get the commission a drug test that it will accept.
Through it all he's kept a remarkably calm public appearance, maybe because he's used to the chaos after such a tumultuous career in both Japan and North America.
"I've been through a lot in my career," he said. "I have like, I don't know, I think like 65 or 70 fights, so you learn how to deal with distractions, setbacks. I mean, I'm a three-time champion, and I've been through a lot. It's all about adaptation. I'm pretty good at that, I think."
Lesnar also touched on the challenge of "trying to live a somewhat normal life" while also competing as a world-famous UFC heavyweight, but in the end there might be only one thing they agree on, and it's that neither is expecting to have to put in 25 minutes of work on fight night.
"I don't see it really going past the second round," said Overeem. "First or second round, maximum."
Lesnar concurred, saying, "I feel the same. This is a heavyweight fight that, you know, we're both going in to finish this fight. I don't foresee it going five rounds."
Whether that's more of a prediction or a hope, we'll have to wait and see.
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