Hyped as one of the better fights scheduled for a busy New Year's Eve weekend, Shinya Aoki (Pictures) versus Gesias Calvancante (Pictures) will not come to fruition.

Calvancante's father confirmed the news to Sherdog.com's Denis Martins on Saturday that his son's fight with Aoki will be postponed to March.

Fight Entertainment Group, which holds Calvancante under contract and apparently made the lightweight available for the Yarennoka! card, is expected to announce the make-up date at a press conference on Dec. 30.

Why Yarennoka! -- a co-promotion on Dec. 31 between former PRIDE FC employees and upstart M-1 Global airing live in the U.S. on HDNet starting at 6 a.m. EST -- lost its most interesting match is still in question.

Rumored to be coming off knee and nose surgeries in Brazil, the 23-year-old Calvancante, ranked third at 155 pounds by Sherdog.com, had not trained at all for this fight with his American Top Team camp in Florida, a source said.

On Dec. 5 "JZ" discussed the pending fight with Sherdog.com, and just three days ago Aoki held an open workout for media in Tokyo, where he spoke about the anticipated fight.

Questioned Friday about the status of the bout, which was officially announced at a press conference in Tokyo on Nov. 28, M-1 Global CEO Monte Cox stated that if the fight is off, no one had informed him.

"As far as I know the fight is still happening, and it is one I am really looking forward to seeing," Cox told Sherdog.com.

In mid-September Calvancante (14-1-1), considered among the fastest ascending stars in the division, won his second consecutive K-1 HERO'S lightweight tournament crown.

Meanwhile Aoki, 11-2-0, is a slick 24-year-old grappler who has run off eight consecutive victories, including an impressive gogoplata submission over former Shooto champion Joachim Hansen (Pictures) last New Year's Eve.