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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
In what was quickly becoming an inevitable result, the UFC will not be putting on an event opposite Strikeforce's return to CBS on April 17th, according to a report from MMAFighting.com.
Rumors began swirling earlier this month when Strikeforce finally announced a date and venue for their Strikeforce: Nashville event that the UFC would be bringing an event to Spike TV on that same date, and possibly even in the same city, as that card. A fight between Matt Serra and Mike Swick, as well as one between Wanderlei Silva and Yoshihiro Akiyama, had been discussed for the card, and the UFC had even let Spike TV know of their intention to hold a card on that night, but for various reasons those fights fell through and the event is now officially off.
Strikeforce now has the night to themselves as far as a live event is concerned, but the UFC will still likely air a replay of a pay-per-view event up against the CBS show that could still take some viewers to Spike.
Strikeforce: Nashville is headlined by a Middleweight Title bout between Dan Henderson and Jake Shields, and features a Light Heavyweight Title bout between Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal as well as a Lightweight Title bout between Gilbert Melendez and Shinya Aoki.
Penick's Analysis: Being that we're now less than 30 days from the April 17th date with no announcement from the UFC, this news comes as no surprise. They had some plans for an event that would have worked for them and when they fell through and they didn't have the right fights to bring viewers over to Spike it no longer made sense to attempt to put on a show. It was a nice talking point for a few weeks about what could happen if the head to head cards came to pass, but fans no longer have to split their attention on the 17th and ultimately that's probably a good thing.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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