MMA Legend Alistair Overeem Gets Behind Croatia

Alistair Overeem supporting Croatia (Twitter)

Stipe Miocic may have knocked him out in the octagon a couple years ago but that did not stop legendary MMA fighter Alistair Overeem from supporting Croatia in the World Cup in Russia.

Croatia has picked up a lot of ‘neutral’ fans at this tournament, including a number of well-known personalities like Irish singer Niall Horan.

The former Strikeforce champion and one of only two fighters to hold world titles in both MMA and K-1 kickboxing is another to get on the checkered bandwagon.

I try to support winners so yes I was hoping for croatia to win. Why? Because I’m there right now with my friend Ante #WorldCupRussia2018 pic.twitter.com/D5Z8MbxKfx

— Alistair Overeem (@Alistairovereem) July 7, 2018

Overeem was in Split watching Croatia take on Russia in the quarterfinal on Saturday and was rooting for Luka Modric and the team wearing the Croatian kit with the Ivan Rakitic’s name on the back.

Like Genki Sudo said: “we are all one”. But we identify what we know and see. I have seen the world and made many friendships. Meet Ante a friend of mine. I flew to croatia to spend some quality time and to see Croatia 🇭🇷 win was a big extra! Great evening and now we are going to watch some UFC. @antebonacic #croatia #rakitic #worldcup #ufc226 @ivanrakitic

A post shared by Alistair Overeem (@alistairovereem) on Jul 7, 2018 at 3:42pm PDT

Overeem, who has UFC heavyweight victories to his name against the likes of Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Junior dos Santos, and Brock Lesnar, was knocked out in the first round by Croatian-American Miocic in the UFC heavyweight title fight in 2016.

The English-born Dutchman may find it difficult on Wednesday to be supporting Croatia, publically at least, as he lives in the UK.