5 biggest takeaways from UFC on ESPN 8: Walt Harris’ heartbreak reminds us how cruel MMA can be

MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn covers the fallout of UFC on ESPN 8, where Alistair Overeem, Claudia Gadelha and Dan Ige earned notable wins.

2. Happy birthday, Alistair Overeem!

Despite being somewhat forced into a villain role due to Harris’ situation coming into the fight, [autotag]Alistair Overeem[/autotag] handled himself with class from beginning to end, and he has to be quite happy with how the week unfolded.

It was a critical moment for Overeem coming off a knockout loss to Jairzinho Rozenstruik last December. His hopes to make a final push toward the title sat entirely on the result vs. Harris, and he managed to overcome some serious early adversity to claim the win.

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Overeem’s even-keel approach did well for him. His hand was raised just minutes before his 40th birthday, and while that’s certainly on the latter end of the age scale for a high-level fighter, “The Reem” still appears to have a lot of drive.

Playing the bad guy to Harris’ comeback fight couldn’t have been enjoyable. Overeem was a consummate professional, though, and is once again a player in the heavyweight division.

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