Overeem and the Tale of Two Injections

     Alright, alright alright, I'll admit it. I was a sucker that tried to defend Overeem all of these years. So you can imagine my disappointment to hear that after the commission finally got their hands on him for a random drug test at a UFC 146 press conference, he failed and failed hard. The guy totally ruined one of the most anticipated fights of the year, but more than that, he destroyed his legacy.

     Everything he has accomplished is a complete sham. The K1 championship, Strikeforce championship, all of those wins in Japan and his status as one of the top heavyweights in the world can all be thrown out of the window. You and I know that this guy has been roiding for his entire heavyweight career.

      Can I confirm this with actual facts and drug tests from the past? Absolutely not, so I may not technically know for sure, and it may also be wrong to accuse him of such. But as the saying goes, "where there's smoke, there's fire",  and we have some epic levels of zero visibility type smoke with this guy.

    With that being said it was with great interest that I listened to his hearing with the Nevada Athletic Commission. I really wanted to know just what he could possibly say to defend himself. And let's just say I wasn't disappointed. I never knew one of these hearings could be full of such comedic gems. Here are some of my favourite quotes. Part one of the hearing is linked closer to the end of this post. The approximate times that the quotes were spoken are at the end of each quote.

Overeem's Licensing  Hearing - Greatest Hits

     Here's Keith Kizer (Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Executive Director) talking about what he saw Overeem do as Keith was getting ready to administer the random drug test to the fighters who just finished the press conference.

“Mr . Overeem speeded out of the building jumped into a car and took off” 2:14.

     If this was my hearing and I was the dude leading this thing (Skip Avansino Chairman of NSAC), I would have slammed the gavel down (I don't think he had one but I sure would), right then and there after hearing that. Then I would have yelled "you're guilty", gotten up and made it back home just in time to watch midday Price is Right reruns.

    Why in the world would this guy try to skip out of the press conference like that if he wasn't guilty? I have exclusive footage of Overeem fleeing the press conference below. You tell me if he looks guilty or not.

    I have to give a shout out to the commission for giving a guy who looked so obviously guilty a fair chance to represent himself and tell his side of the story.  And his side of the story also provided some comic relief. But to give us assurance that what they were going to say was all going to be true, Overeem's lawyer said this gem...

"As an attorney for over thirty years, the one thing you do is you either tell the truth or you keep your mouth shut”5:35

     Thanks for that reassurance buddy. It doesn't take a body language expert to figure out that this guy would be lying like a... like a.... like a... well... attorney throughout this process. All you need is some decent poker skills and you can see the obvious tell that he gave away just before he says the above quote (There's also another tell at around 6:46. See if you can catch that one too and let me know what you think).

     So, I guess you can blame it on my days watching World Poker Tour but I immediately don't trust anything coming out of his mouth. Nevertheless, Overeem does have an official excuse for trying to dip out of the press conference in a car that goes zero to sixty, swiftly (RIP B.I.G). Here it is below.

“They had heard reports that Process servers were going to attempt to disrupt the press conference by making a public spectacle of serving our client, Alistair"6:56

    So apparently, the scary people at Golden Glory (Alistair's former management who he is in a legal dispute with) were hunting Alistair down and were going to serve him some papers and that's why Overeem had to high-tail it out of there. Sounds a little convenient to me.

    And there are so many things that sounded so silly in this hearing that this article would be far too long for me to analyze all of the eye roll inducing moments (you need to listen to the stuff about the vial). Everything I've mentioned just takes place in part one. There are FOUR other parts (thanks to the fine folks at MMAFightCorner.com for posting it on youtube in its entirety).


Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBijP3Ljp30
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNgnIDTryPo
Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M63rEJ8rlzk
Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez0CNpGfUJM

Eventually, Overeem admits to "unknowingly" getting injected twice with "anti-inflammatory" medication that just happened to also contain testosterone which ultimately caused the failed test. And in full disclosure, they brought the little vial that Overeem used to inject himself with the banned substance. It was pretty tiny, small enough to be held between your thumb and index finger. But I wouldn't be surprised if the real container he had at his home looked more like this...

So they suspended Overeem for nine months. Do you agree with the decision? Should it be more or less? Let me know in the comments or on twitter @VexedMMA.