Dana White Still Deciding On Whether or Not to Release Alistair Overeem

Alistair Overeem will sit out the next nine months after a failed drug test, but his fate with the UFC is still up in the air.

On Tuesday, Overeem appeared before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to answer to the charges of an elevated testosterone test that was return after a drug screening in late March following the UFC 146 pre-fight press conference.

Ultimately, the commission decided to deny Overeem a license and the resulting penalty was 9-months before he could re-apply for a fight license in Nevada, and also agree not to fight in another state or province while under the suspension.

UFC President Dana White was out of the country when the Overeem verdict was handed down, but on Wednesday he appeared on the Jim Rome Show where he found out about the punishment literally on air.

“I wasn’t very optimistic about his chances. I didn’t think things were going to turn out very well for him, as expected. 9 months? 9 months isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought he’d get a year, easily a year,” said White with some surprise.

Overeem’s claim on Tuesday was that a doctor had administered a shot with anti-inflammatory drugs, but the cocktail also contained testosterone that resulted in the elevated levels during the test.

Regardless of what was injected into Overeem’s body, White says that the UFC heavyweight should have disclosed it to the commission no matter what was inside.

“Whatever medicine you’re on you’re supposed to tell them before you test, not after you test,” said White.

“I’m not a fan, I’m not a fan at all. You’re not going to hear me defending Alistair Overeem, believe me.”

Now with Overeem on the shelf for the next nine months, will he soon also be a free agent?

“I don’t know we’ll see what happens,” White said about possibly releasing Overeem. “He went before the commission, the commission gave him nine months. I’m sure he’s going to have to go in and test again.

“Before he went in there he sat down at a lunch with me and my partner, looked us in the face and said ‘I’m the most tested athlete in all of sports, they can test me whenever they want to’. He flew in for the press conference, they tested him, and now he’s on a 9 month suspension, claiming he was on anti-inflammatories which he should have told them about before they tested.”

The heart of the matter for White comes down to the fact that he believes Overeem lied to him, and that’s something that is not easily forgiven.

“I do, yeah, I know he lied to me,” said White. “I don’t like it.”

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