Why won’t Alistair Overeem defend his belt?

What the hell is going on with Alistair Overeem?! He hasn’t defended his Strikeforce heavyweight belt since he kneed Paul Buentello into the ground to capture it in November 2007.

He has fought since then, though, including three DREAM bouts, one bout in Holland against Gary Goodridge and a bar brawl with his brother in which he broke his hand. That injury prevented him from fighting Brett Rogers at Strikeforce in June and Fabricio Werdum in August.

And now that he’s all healed up, what is he doing? Going off to compete in a couple of kickboxing event, according to Five Ounces of Pain. He will face fellow Dutchman Peter Aerts at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 on September 26 for a chance to qualify for December’s championship. Overeem is also expected to fight Mighty Mo, Siala-Mou Siligia, during a separate kickboxing event set for Amsterdam on October 17.

So what about the Strikeforce heavyweight title? We know Fedor Emelianenko will challenge for it and that Strikeforce wants to build up to that bout by having Fedor fight at least one warm-up against Rogers. But we need to see Overeem in action, the belt on the line. It’s been way too long. Why not threaten to strip Overeem of the title to force him to fight on the same card as Fedor-Rogers against Werdum? That would be a helluva card.