UFC Quick Quote: Alistair Overeem is too preoccupied with his career to bother with your steroid accusations

"People have accused me of using steroids since I was 17. I remember my first fight, my girlfriend was in the audience, and she told me people, jealous guys, were whispering I was taking steroids. That was when I was 17. I was a middleweight back then. All I can say is my side of the story. When I was 20, I was already a natural heavyweight. I weighed 222 pounds. Cutting the weight to light heavyweight worked out in the beginning, but I couldn't do a strength and conditioning program and I was dieting all the time. When I made the decision to move to heavyweight, I went on a food program, [and] strength and conditioning program, and I gradually gained weight. Eleven years ago, I was 222 pounds. Now I'm 265. That's 40 pounds added in 11 years. I firmly believe everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. We have free speech. If people want to talk that way, let them talk that way. I can't control what people say. If they want to insinuate things, that's fine. I'm too occupied with my own career to bother with it."

-- Think musclebound former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem is using steroids? Big deal. "The Reem" tells ESPN.com he's been dealing with accusations since all the way back when he was just a 17-year-old kid trying to impress his girlfriend. His message for the haters? He's "too occupied with my own career" to even bother with all that noise. It's a good thing, too, because he's got a 265-pound beast ready to bumrush him inside the Octagon at UFC 141 on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the form of a motivated Brock Lesnar. Motivated because he wants to get his world title back and prove to the world that the 12 inches of intestines he had ripped out of his guts won't hold him back. Overeem is also eager to send a message to the nonbelievers that he truly belongs in the UFC and he's no secondary champion. So you see? Steroids are small potatoes. The Brockness Monster is not. Priorities, Maniacs.