Overeem, through the media, made it seem as though Cro Cop was the one who backed out of the supposedly inevitable re-match but that may not be the case.

"It was the organizations wish that I fight him and I take my orders from them," Cro Cop said in a translated interview.

Nonetheless, Cro Cop now must face a man who gave Fedor Emelianenko all he could handle during last year's New Year's Eve fight.