Alistair Overeem and Mark Hunt stepped into the octagon at Saturday night at “UFC 209″ prepared to give the fans a heavyweight clash that would set the pace for an exciting pay-per-view. What fans didn’t know is that Overeem had just visited the hospital twice prior to fight night; The fact that he went nearly fifteen minutes with Hunt before brutally knocking him is a testament to his toughness.
Overeem’s struggles with food poisoning began on Friday morning just before his weigh-ins in Las Vegas. “I was dizzy in the head, I was nauseous, extremely low energy. I had a hard time coming out of the bed. I didn’t want to come out of the bed,” Overeem told MMA Fighting.
After being hospitalized and given a pre-approved I.V. from the hospital, Overeem began his quick recovery.
“I felt kind of OK for the fight and I really wanted to do it. Especially, you know Khabib dropped and we had the weigh-ins and always after the weigh-ins we get this motivational speech from Dana. And Dana was [expletive], because the Khabib fight was canceled. If that happens, then there’s not gonna be another cancellation. That’s just the way it is.”
“I just knew that this is gonna be enough. Even if I’m 70 percent, I can still beat Mark Hunt. So that’s what we did.”
