Alistair Ovareem granted a conditional fight license to fight Brock at UFC 141

Amidst the huge rumors regarding the main event for UFC 141, Alistair Overeem finally received the green light to fight Brock Lesnar on December 30th but it didn’t come easily.

The NSAC hearing, reached the verdit that Overeem would be given a conditional license to fight in UFC 141 but included the following stipulations.

Overeem must complete a drugs test within seven days at a licensed centre potentially in Europe or in the UK.
Overeem must complete a further test when he lands in the US prior to his UFC 141 bout.
Overeem will be required to complete two more drugs tests in a six month period following the bout.

The complications began on November 17th when NSAC head Keith Kizar notified Lesnar and Overeem that they were both required to complete a random drugs test immediately. Lesnar ran into issues initially because there were no approved centres in his vacinity but Overeem’s camp did not reply for four days.

Overeem’s manager did eventually get in touch with the NSAC but it was to reveal that the heavyweight had returned home to Holland to be with his sick mother. Alistair did complete a test through his doctor whilst in Holland but it was a blood test not urine so it was of no use to the commission. It was not until December 7th that Overeem completed a urine test.

UFC 141 will easily be the biggest show of the organization’s calender and, although there were a few less than comfortable moments during the inquest, the countdown to the UFC’s biggest pay per view event of the year can now officially begin.

UFC 140 Aftermath: Brutal Finishes That Defied the Norm

It is the aftermath of UFC 140 in Toronto and living in the city, the buzz is surely on the brutal finishes of the fights from the card on Saturday night.

All the coverage and talk of Frank Mir breaking Nogueira's arm, along with local reports of how all the Maple Leafs and hockey players in attendance thought it was quite a brutal sport, has left me throwing caution to the wind.

The finishes, and some of the fights we saw this weekend fall directly into the five-90-five percent rule, and it must be explained before any judgement is passed by the uneducated MMA fan.

Five percent of all fights will end in some sort of shocking, brutal or even gruesome fashion, 90 percent will end in exciting, even thrilling but normal finishes and the other five percent will end in boring and uneventful fashion.

Usually, the shocking and brutal finishes are spread and sort out among the many different fight cards in a year or period of time. In my opinion, a case could be made that we saw three fights that had finishes in the first five percent.

Frank Mir's brutal kimura on "Big Nog" is definitely one, Jones's somewhat brutal-looking choke and how he landed plastered face-down was another.

It could be argued that Chan Sung Jung's knockout seven seconds in qualifies in there, too.

Mir's destruction of Nogueira's arm is comparable to the worst injury in any other sport suffered under the rules, like a broken neck on a clean hit in football, a broken leg on a knee-on-knee hit in hockey or a broken arm from a collision at home plate.

You can't judge the sport on the most brutal of its incidents. They happen but they are rare. Just like Machida getting choked out on his feet and dropped or Hominick getting knocked out in seven seconds.

The only difference in these incidents is what makes MMA even safer than some of the other sports mentioned.

Both Nogueira and Machida could have stopped these incidents on the spot by swallowing their pride and tapping out to the opponent—a choice not available in mid-action in most sports.

But both men chose not to tap, and both men suffered very cold and real consequences.

UFC 141 promotional video

If you guys are into comics like myself, this would be like The Incredible Hulk vs. The Red Hulk as both fighters are behemoths.

In spite of what people say about Brock Lesnar and his recent medical woes, he is still a freak of nature and so is his opponent.

This is going to be a big one.