Alistair Overeem vs Andrei Arlovski for New Year's Eve falls through

Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski and his manager, Leo Khorlinsky, were all set to make a big announcement last night live streaming video on "The Pitbull's" Web site.

It never happened. Instead, the pair could only announce what would have been.

Arlovski was offered to fight Alistair Overeem at Dynamite 09 on New Year's Eve in Japan. The Belarusian verbally agreed and even received the bout agreement, which he was in the midst of completing. In fact, Arlovski and Khorlinsky informed their families and friends that they would not be around for the holidays.

That is, of course, until the Japanese-based promoters announced that Kazuyuki Fujita, not Arlovski, will take on the "Demolition Man" at the year-end event.

From the baffled Khorlinsky:

"I was on the phone with them earlier tonight and did not get an explanation that made sense."

Arlovski revealed that he had been training for Overeem, paying special attention to not getting caught in what he says is a dangerous guillotine from the Strikeforce heavyweight champion.

Unfortunately, it never came to be ... and we may never know the real reason behind the last-minute switch.

Did Overeem think Arlovski was too dangerous and ducked him? Did Japan not want to risk one of its stars losing to a formed champion in the United States? 

We can only guess at this point. Care to share your conspiracy theories?