Overeem brings 61 (44-17) professional MMA fights with him into his main event clash with Aleskei Oleinik at UFC Saint Petersburg. Oleinik boasts 69 professional fights to his name (57-11-1), putting Overeem in the unusual position of being the fighter with less professional experience.

And it wasn’t originally supposed to be that way.

Alexander Volkov (30-7) was initially slated to stand across the Octagon from Overeem in UFC’s second foray into Russia, but health issues forced him to withdraw from the bout. Nonetheless, the show must go on and “The Demolition Man” made some adjustments and started preparing for the dangerous submission artist that is “The Boa Constrictor.”

“It is a different style opponent but most importantly in my training camp I focused on my shape,” Overeem said. “And then it doesn’t really matter who you face, you know? You just know you’re in the flow, you just know you’re going to do good so for me the change didn’t really matter.”