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Well, some of the mystery surrounding Strikeforce major April event is gone. Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed that the organization will be running an event in Nashville on April 17th. Though he confirmed the date and location, he did not go any further on the details, stating that more announcements will be coming next week.
One of the reasons for the delay in info, Coker said, has been their concentration on tomorrow night's Strikeforce Challengers event on Showtime. The card features the crowning of the first Strikeforce Women's 135 lb. Championship as Sarah Kaufman faces off with Takayo Hashi. The other main bout of the card is between Trevor Prangley and Karl Amoussou.
The April card is now expected to be headlined by Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields for the Middleweight Championship, with Fedor Emelianenko being pushed back to May according to M-1 Global today. Another bout rumored for the card is Gegard Mousasi vs. "King Mo" Lawal, though Coker wouldn't confirm any other details on the card.
Coker also revealed that Strikeforce is aiming for a pay-per-view event before the year is out. Said Coker, "We're very happy with Showtime and free television on CBS. But before the end of the year, in the fourth quarter, we'll definitely have a fight on pay-per-view."
Penick's Analysis: The date and location is set at least, and hopefully it won't be too long into next week before more information comes out for the event. While Shields, a main eventer, may have been told when and where he was fighting before anything came out, other stories paint a different picture of how Strikeforce locks up their fighters. Shields' last opponent, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, told Adam Corolla on his podcast how his fights are booked, saying "It's like, 'You're going to fight in March, or maybe April, but just train. We promise we're going to pay, so get your ass out there. That's how it is." It just seems as if they're putting more on their plate this year than they're able to handle from a time standpoint, and perhaps they need to rethink how many events they've got on the docket. For now, tomorrow's event should provide some good action from some up and coming fighters on Showtime, but that event is getting lost in the shuffle as fans want to know when the next major fights are coming.
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