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In what really shouldn't come as that much of a surprise, the UFC will be putting a live show head to head with Strikeforce's next event on CBS on April 17th.
The news comes from F4WOnline.com, and the report states the event is most likely to air on Spike TV. While no headliner is known as of yet for the card, the report states the UFC is trying to finalize a welterweight bout between Matt Serra and Mike Swick.
Strikeforce and CBS have already announced the event for April 17th, which will feature three Title fights, with Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields in the night's main event.
Penick's Analysis: I guess this should have been expected, and clearly the UFC had this in the works, but man this is going for the kill shot. If they can pull a bigger number on Spike than Strikeforce does on CBS it's even more of an indication of their dominance in the sport. They have a fight that could pull the numbers needed as well: James Toney vs. Kimbo Slice. It's a fight Toney's new MMA trainer Juanito Ibarra has said they were interested in, and one that Slice's camp would likely be more than willing to take. Kimbo has already drawn ridiculous numbers on Spike, and if you add that with the publicity Toney's MMA debut will bring to an event on Spike, and the fact that the Henderson-Shields bout is an iffy draw as is, it could be the UFC in the lead by a wide margin on April 17th. CBS executives would believe that they're bringing in a different demographic to the Saturday Night Fights than just people that are already fans of the sport, but it is the majority of mainstream fans that will inflate their numbers. Those are the people that made Fedor's debut in November the ninth most watched fight in MMA history. They may not tune in live for the three fights that Strikeforce is putting on that night if the UFC puts a good card on Spike, or even if they just put one major drawing fight to the card that night. How this event shapes up will be a very big story over the next couple of weeks as more information comes out.
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