Alistair Overeem to ex-champ Junior Dos Santos: 'Time to get rolling!'

It’s a fight that seems to make perfect sense given the state of the heavyweight division and a lack of other available options. Alistair Overeem knows it, too.

Overeem (39-14 MMA, 4-3 UFC), who’s ranked No. 7 in the NOS Energy Drink MMA heavyweight rankings, wants a fight with No. 3-ranked Junior dos Santos (17-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC).

Overeem, though, is apparently waiting for Dos Santos to accept it, as he today tweeted:

It’s not the first time Overeem, who’s won two straight and three of his past four, has pushed for the bout. Over the past weeks, he’s retweeted numerous fans’ calls for the fight. Even back in May, he told MMAjunkie he wants the fight.

According to the former Strikeforce champion, the potential Dos Santos bout is the only one that really makes sense.

“It sounds logical to me,” Overeem said. “I am a fighter. I still have five years. I want to go up, and he is the No. 1 guy up because you have the interim champ (Fabricio) Werdum, and you have the champ Cain (Velasquez). So he’s right underneath there, and I want to go up.

“I want to fight for the title, so you want to look up. You don’t want to look down. The other things is that the Junior fight has been spoken about so many times. Everybody wants to see that fight. That fight is going to happen, so I’m thinking, ‘OK, why not now?’”

During a fan Q&A in May, he also pushed for the fight (watch the video above).

Another aspect working in Overeem’s favor? Many of the division’s other top-ranked fighters were recently matched up. No. 4-ranked Stipe Miocic (13-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) and No. 7-ranked Ben Rothwell (35-9 MMA, 5-3 UFC) were recently booked for a UFC Fight Night 76 co-headliner on Oct. 24. No. 5 Andrei Arlovski (24-10 MMA, 13-4 UFC) and No. 11 Frank Mir (18-9 MMA, 16-9 UFC) co-headline UFC 191 on Sept. 5. Additionally, No. 10 Josh Barnett (33-7 MMA, 5-2 UFC) meets No. 14 Roy Nelson (20-11 MMA, 7-7 UFC) in UFC Fight Night 75’s headliner on Sept. 26.

However, Dos Santos, who most recently rebounded from a title loss to champ Velasquez with a decision victory over Miocic in December, hasn’t responded to Overeem’s latest tweet. In the past, he’s suggested Overeem is better at talking up a bout than actually fighting it.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.