UFC
Dana White: Junior dos Santos to fight Cain Velasquez, not Alistair Overeem, on Dec. 29
Aug 12, 2012 - 2:10:52 PM Dana White: Junior dos Santos to fight Cain Velasquez, not Alistair Overeem, on Dec. 29

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Sorry, Alistair Overeem, you're going to have to wait for your shot at the title.

Junior dos Santos will indeed fight on the Dec. 29 event in Las Vegas, but the UFC won't be attempting to put Overeem in that slot. UFC President Dana White revealed following the UFC 150 post-fight press conference that Overeem will take on Cain Velasquez as planned in a rematch of their UFC on Fox bout from November of last year.

Overeem had been making noise this past week about attempting to get licensed early, but with NSAC executive director Keith Kizer last week saying there was "no way" for Overeem to receive a license early from the commission, the UFC isn't even going to attempt it.

The former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion cannot apply for a license until Dec. 27, nine months after he tested positive for an elevated T/E ratio, which ultimately revealed that he had injected synthetic testosterone earlier in the year. The NSAC cut his denial time period from a year to nine months, but he was hoping to gain an assurance that he could be licensed on Dec. 27, so as to face dos Santos on the UFC's year-end event.

For his part, dos Santos was more interested in foregoing a second fight with Velasquez in order to face Overeem, as he was tired of Overeem's comments in the media as of late. Velasquez felt disrespected by the situation, but had lost the first fight against dos Santos in just 64 seconds, leaving little sympathy for his No. 1 contendership being overlooked after one win in between. But that fight will still happen - at least, that's the plan for now.

Penick's Analysis: Overeem's not going to be licensed early, so much like they did when his drug test appeal wasn't looking good, the UFC pulled him. It makes sense, because even if they wanted that fight over dos Santos-Velasquez II, there's just no way to promote Overeem and sell tickets for that fight when there's no guarantee that the paperwork would be complete and processed for him to be licensed by fight night. That's been the case since the date was set, though, and it seems like a waste and an overly lengthy delay to have pushed the dos Santos-Velasquez rematch back this far. Unless, of course, dos Santos has been nursing some unreported injury and needed the time off.

[Junior dos Santos art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]