UFC Fighter Alistair Overeem Faces Battery Charge

UFC heavyweight and No. 1 contender Alistair Overeem has been charged with misdemeanor battery stemming from an incident over New Year's weekend in Las Vegas.

According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Overeem was cited by the Las Vegas Police Department for allegedly shoving a woman in the face at the Wynn Las Vegas on Jan. 2 at 3 a.m.

Overeem has obtained criminal defense attorney David Chesnoff to handle the case.

“There are two sides to every story,” Chesnoff told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “and we intend on vigorously defending this. Alistair maintains his innocence.”

The report also states Overeem is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 21 at 8 a.m., but the Clark County Office of the District Attorney tells MMAWeekly.com they have no record of such a hearing. Clark County court records also show no scheduled date.

MMAWeekly.com attempted contacting Chesnoff, but he was unavailable for comment at the time of this publication.

The last MMA and UFC fans saw of Overeem was in his Octagon debut at UFC 141, the same weekend of the alleged incident, where he TKO'd former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar in the first round of their main event bout.

Prior to the Lesnar fight, Overeem made waves in combat sports by collecting heavyweight titles in Strikeforce and Dream, as well as winning the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix.

Next on Overeem's list of gold belts he'd like to own is the UFC heavyweight championship currently held by Junior dos Santos. The two are destined to meet sometime later this year at a yet-to-be-announced date and venue.

MMAWeekly.com will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.

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