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It looks like Fedor Emelianenko isn’t the only marquee fighter Strikeforce has to worry about retaining. Both Gegard Mousasi and Jake Shields each have one fight left on their current contracts which they’ll fulfill on April 17 in Nashville. If Mousasi beats King Mo he’ll remained tied to the organization due to the “champion’s clause” in his contract, however it doesn’t sound like it will matter much since Mousasi expects to sign a longterm deal with Strikeforce regardless.

Strikeforce held an open workout and press conference yesterday at Legends gym in Hollywood, California for their upcoming Strikeforce “Nashville” event. Here’s highlights, video interviews and pictures courtesy of Strikeforce, Showtime, Sherdog and FIGHT! Magazine.

Dan Henderson talks about his upcoming Strikeforce debut on April 17 against Jake Shields for the middleweight title.

It’s finally official!

It looks like the Strikeforce April 17 event is all but officially announced for CBS. Jake Shields tweeted earlier today that his title defense against Dan Henderson and the rumored Gegard Mousasi vs. King Mo fight are official. MMA Weekly confirmed those two bouts will co-headline the event.

The rumored Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields fight is finally a done deal. Shields confirmed the news to MMA Weekly, but also expressed a little doubt about the card airing on CBS.

“It’s a go now. We finally worked it out a few days ago,” he said about the fight with Henderson. “It’s a done deal, it’s been agreed upon by both parties as far as I know, and I think it’s set to go.”

“I have a date (and) venue, but they told me to hold that back,” said Shields. “Hopefully CBS. I think it’s CBS. There’s a slight possibility of Showtime because they’re still (working it out). I don’t know the rest of the card or any of that yet. But me and Dan’s on, and I’m hoping it’s on CBS.”

As far as anyone knows, or has at least reported, CBS is still set to broadcast the event. In fact, the most recent questions surrounding the event have been about the date, location, and whether Fedor Emelianenko is still set to headline the card, not the network it’s airing on. This is starting to turn out like an episode of Lost. Each answer brings more questions.

Image via Esther Lin for Showtime

On this week’s edition of ESPN MMA Live, Jon Anik and crew give out their 2009 year-end awards. But first they were joined by Brock Lesnar’s trainer, Greg Nelson, who says Brock will “definitely” fight again, but isn’t sure when. He is aware Dana White intends to hold a press conference early next week to reveal Lesnar’s future, but doesn’t know what will be announced.

Inside MMA airs on HDNet every Friday night at 9PM ET.

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Scott Coker confirmed earlier reports today that Dan Henderson will likely fight Jake Shields on the April Strikeforce/CBS card. The fight would be for Jake’s middleweight title. Hendo added:

“After coming off my last fight at 185, it’s just a natural choice to start. And if I do fight Jake Shields, which will probably be my first fight, I will probably defend the title (at least once).

“We’ll see what happens but that’s definitely a good possibility for my first fight,” Henderson continued. “We’ll have to talk to Scott here and hopefully Jake doesn’t run back down to 170.”

Jake Shields also says he wants the fight, but needs to work out the details with Strikeforce first.

“I want to fight big fights and this is a big fight,” said Shields. “I think I am still a 170 pounder, but I think I match up well and I want the fight to happen so I think we will work it out.”

Video via Cagewriter