March’s UFC 209 card has potentially booked its first major fight and could take place in the heavyweight division as #3 Alistair Overeem faces #7 Mark Hunt, per ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
However, there is a potential hitch to the fight taking place -- Hunt’s requirement about drug testing and the penalties for all of his fights, following the Brock Lesnar positive drug test at UFC 200.
Brett Okamoto said this on his Twitter about the fight:
As of last week Hunt was still asking for clause in future fight contracts re: drug testing penalties. Don't know exact details on that yet.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) December 21, 2016
Overeem (41-16-0) will be competing for the first time since losing a UFC Heavyweight Title fight to current champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 203. Overeem has defeated Hunt before, over eight years ago at Dream 5, where Overeem won by submission. Overeem was on a four fight winning streak before the loss at UFC 203, those wins came over Stefan Struve, Roy Nelson, Junior Dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski.
Hunt (12-10-0) hasn’t fought since the controversy surrounding the Brock Lesnar fight at UFC 200, where Lesnar defeated Hunt by unanimous decision, but then failed two drug tests. The fight would eventually be overturned to a no contest, but Hunt rejected several fights following the incident. Hunt has previously challenged for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title, losing to Fabricio Werdum at UFC 180. Hunt was on a two fight winning streak before the UFC 200 fiasco, those wins came over Frank Mir and Antonio Silva.
UFC 209 takes place on Saturday, March 4 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with no headliners announced as of yet.
