Overeem Fails Drug Test After Hari Win

Alistair Overeem has failed a drug test taken the night of his Glory Collision 4 win over Badr Hari. His team claims the substance isn’t performance enhancing.

Alistair Overeem has tested positive for a banned substance following his win over Badr Hari at Glory Collision 4.

The kickboxing event went down on October 8th from the GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands and saw Overeem defeat Hari via unanimous decision with 29-26, 28-27, 28-27, 28-27, 28-27 scores (yes, Glory uses five judges instead of three). It was Overeem’s first fight since being released from the UFC in February 2021 after losing to Alexander Volkov. Alistair left the organization on a 4-2 run.

The win set Overeem up to fight Glory heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven, but now that fight is in jeopardy after the A sample taken on the night of the Overeem vs. Hari fight came back positive for a banned substance. A B sample is currently being tested to confirm this. According to Dutch news outlet De Telegraaf, Overeem’s team is saying ‘the substance found is not a performance-enhancing substance.’

For years, rumors and jokes about Alistair Overeem and his ‘horsemeat diet’ have swirled across the internet. “The Demolition Man” has always been an absolute species of a fighter, even amongst fighters, so speculation about potential performance enhancing drug use has always tailed him. Overeem fought for Rings, PRIDE, DREAM, and Strikeforce over the first ten years of his fighting career but it wasn’t until he joined the UFC in 2011 that he was extensively drug tested, and immediately problems arose.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission granted Overeem a license to fight Brock Lesnar so long as both men were drug tested a month and a half out from their fight. Overeem’s tests never made it to the NSAC in any usable fashion and the commission was forced to issue a new conditional license with further testing demands once Alistair arrived in America.

After beating Lesnar, Overeem was set to face heavyweight Junior dos Santos in 2012 at UFC 146. Unfortunately for “The Reem,” he failed a NSAC drug test in the lead up to the fight, popping with a 14-to-1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio. The normal, less superhero T/E ration is 6-to1. Overeem claimed the failed test was caused by an “anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone.” Overeem was suspended for nine months.

Overeem returned in 2013 but went on a 1-3 skid with ‘extremely low testosterone’ before righting the ship. From there he went on a four fight win streak, only to lose to Stipe Miocic in a 2016 title fight. From there Overeem became a gatekeeper, capable of beating anyone outside of the top five but unable to keep back the next generation of heavyweights like Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, and Jairzhinho Rozenstruik. All the while, even with USADA testing in place, Overeem stayed out of trouble.

Now we’ll have to wait and see what substance turned up in Overeem’s drug test, and what kind of suspension he may face because of it. If it’s true that the substance isn’t a straight performance enhancing drug like testosterone, perhaps he’ll get off light. Based on recent press releases from Glory, fighters can receive as little as an ‘official reprimand’ or as much as 20 months.

We’ll keep you informed on what happens as this story develops.