Former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem and former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir have been added to the fight card for UFC 167.
Officials confirmed the bout Thursday.
Overeem is coming off back-to-back KO losses to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Travis Browne. In the heavyweight title eliminator at UFC 156 on February 2, Silva knocked out Overeem at 0:25 in the third round, despite Overeem dominating the match in the first two rounds. Overeem came out the aggressor again at UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen on August 17, but Browne knocked him out with a head kick at 4:08 in the first round.
Mir is also coming off the first losing streak of his career, dropping his last three fights dating back to May 26, 2012, at UFC 146. He was expected to fight Cain Velasquez, but president Dana White announced on April 20 that he would be facing Junior dos Santos for the heavyweight championship.
Alistair Overeem was originally supposed to fight dos Santos, having earned the title shot with his victory over Brock Lesnar in his promotional debut at UFC 141. Overeem defeated the former heavyweight champion by TKO at 2:26 in the first round. He was removed from the title match against dos Santos after he failed a pre-fight drug test. Overeem said the result was positive because of a doctor prescribed “anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone.” His lawyer filed a request for more time to prove the claim, which was denied.
Dos Santos retained his title, beating Mir by TKO at 3:04 in the second round.
Frank Mir recently lost to Josh Barnett by TKO at 3:04 in the first round in the co-main event at UFC 164.
UFC 167 will be headlined by a welterweight title match between champion Georges St-Pierre and top contender Johny Hendricks. Chael Sonnen will face former light heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans in the co-main event .
[Pictured: Alistair Overeem]
