Overeem

Well, I want a rematch with Rozenstruik. He is my preference for the next fight as there’s a score to settle there.

I don’t know. But listen, I’m a fighter. Whoever they’re going to give me I will destroy them. And then slowly, I will get there [to the title shot], right? Because I’m kind of close. I think I need one or two wins.

I’m not sure. It could be Jon (Jones). It could be Francis (Ngannou). Or the champ right now Stipe (Miocic). The margin for error is very thin at the top - one blink of an eye and the off switch is punched. But I don’t care who it is as I’ve never really cared about an opponent before.

Stop immediately. Seriously.

Yeah, I know, but I have to be realistic. I’m 40 years old - sorry, 40 years young. I’ve had an amazing journey. By the time this contract is up I will have fought for 24, possibly 25 years and I think I have to realise how fortunate I have been in my career. It’s a dangerous sport, and if I win the title, it will be mission complete.

I honestly don’t know. When I injured my lower back in 2012, it was supposed to be career ending. So at that point I never thought I’d fight again and I had to look for something to do next, but didn’t find anything.

Second? More like third or fourth. I’ve had moments in my career when I’ve had to re-evaluate what I was doing. But then I managed to find the motivation that ignites a fire to keep going.

I don’t know. My eldest is such a sweetheart and doesn’t have it because she’s too sweet. My middle one? Again, can’t see it. But my youngest? Yeah, I think she’d be the one to do it. I’d support them, of course. If they wanted to do it, then it would be my honour to coach them. I’d love that.

I love the training. I love the improvement aspects too. I really dislike the idea of a 9-to-5 job and I couldn’t ever do it. Never. I think I’d rather die than do that. So I always keep this in the back of my mind going into every fight. There have been difficult moments - especially with injuries. You know, when you have such a long career everything happens. You have the ups and the downs, like when a manager tries to steal money from you. But I always found the motivation to keep going.

Well, I already did that. I went into a kickboxing bout, so I was actually the first and became a champion too. Would I do it again? Sure, but they’ve got to hurry because I’m getting too old. I think boxing could be interesting though - let’s see what happens.

I love being in the gym so I’ll most likely become a coach, only for a couple of hours per day to stay active, but it’d be great to share some of my experiences with the up and coming fighters. It’ll definitely be my own gym, that’s for sure.