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After a month’s worth of rumors and speculation, the UFC has decided to scrap their plans to counter Strikeforce “Nashville” with a live event on April 17.

The long-rumored UFC event expected to counter the promotion’s April 17 CBS offering will not take place, MMA Fighting has confirmed.

Earlier this month, the UFC explored the option, going so far as to inform likely broadcast partner Spike TV that the show was a go, but the company has apparently reversed course, and a Spike source said the network has been told by the UFC that the show is no longer happening.

Now, it appears Strikeforce will air its anticipated show pitting three title fights free of live competition, though the Spike source said it’s likely the UFC will at least air a prior pay-per-view event on Spike. A decision on that programming has yet to be made.

While the rumored card seemed like a definite go at one point, that quickly became more and more questionable as the days and weeks passed without a single solid fight announcement. It’s unknown why the UFC ultimately decided to scrap it, but the trouble they had lining up a solid headliner was probably one of the major factors.

Strikeforce and CBS have to be relieved by the news. Even with the flexibility to move their event to April 24, they decided to stick it out on the 17th. Ticket sales are apparently going well and CBS started airing five and 10-second promos today during March Madness.

Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy will be featured on the second installment of the UFC Primetime series.

New York, NY, January 18, 2010 – In anticipation of their world welterweight title clash at UFC 111: ST-PIERRE vs. HARDY, UFC champion Georges St-Pierre and challenger Dan Hardy will be featured on UFC Primetime®, a weekly, three part series premiering Wednesday, March 10 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on Spike TV.

UFC Primetime, produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®), is a look into the lives of perhaps the world’s best pound for pound fighter, St-Pierre, and Hardy, the man looking to unseat him at the top of the welterweight ladder. As the two prepare for their meeting in late March, Spike TV will present three special weekly installments that will take viewers across the pond to Nottingham, England as Hardy trains with the rest of his Rough House team, and back to North America to Montreal to see how St-Pierre, one of the most beloved athletes in Canada, is preparing for his title defense. UFC Primetime delivers an extraordinary amount of access to two of mixed martial arts’ best, as they head into what could be the signature fight of 2010 at UFC 111.

Can’t say this was expected, but it makes sense. No one really thinks Dan Hardy has much of a chance against GSP, but he is such a great trash talker, featuring him on UFC Primetime could help sell a ton of pay-per-view buys.

Image via All Elbows

Ahh, the PRIDE music still gives me goosebumps. Epic.

The UFC has released a preview fight for Spike’s upcoming ‘Best of PRIDE’ series which premieres this Friday night at 10PM ET/9PM CT. Guess we shouldn’t be surprised the fight they picked just so happens to be one of UFC’s biggest stars, Chuck Liddell, knocking out Strikeforce’s heavyweight champion, Alistair Overem, who by the looked like a freakin’ stick back in 2003. Wow, I forgot how skinny he used to be.

Hulkamania lives! You just didn’t get to see it last thanks to the unprecedented push of Blue Mountain State, which by the way was the most mind-numbing three minutes of my life. If you made it to the five-minute mark without turning it off, congratulations, you’re a better man than me. That show kills brain cells. Anyways, here’s crappy cell phone footage of Tom Lawlor’s Hulk Hogan ring entrance that Spike didn’t show.

“The Best of PRIDE Fighting Championships” premieres Friday, Jan. 15 at 10PM ET/9PM CT on Spike TV.

Zuffa is finally putting their epic PRIDE library to good use. On Jan. 11, Spike TV will premiere “The Best of Pride Fighting Championships.” The show will be hosted by Maxim model Kenda Perez.

A new series that features some of the top matchups from the now-defunct PRIDE Fighting Championships organization debuts Jan. 15 on Spike TV.

“Best of PRIDE,” which features the video library the UFC’s parent company acquired after its purchase of the organization in 2007, airs each Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT with replays throughout the week.

“It’ll kind of be like ‘UFC Unleashed,’” said White, referring to Spike TV’s UFC-themed highlights show. “All the great PRIDE fights that happened with all the stars who are UFC guys now will be on it.”

Expect a ton of Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson, Big Nog, Lil Nog, Cro Cop and Takanori Gomi fights and absolutely zero Fedor Emelianenko fights. MMA Junkie says he’s expected to be featured, but since he never actually lost in PRIDE or even looked bad I think there’s a better chance of Kenda showing up at your doorstep in her Maxim bikini than that happening. Would be sweet if they do though. Scott Coker and CBS would have to send Dana and Spike a pair of fruit baskets.

Image via Maxim

So Rampage Jackson finally got back in the cage last night against none other than Super Dave Osbourne. Would have given you a heads up if it hadn’t slipped past my radar. The good news is the full episode is streaming on Spike.com, so if you’re interested in watching Rampage pretend to beat up a comedian pretending to be a stuntman, that’s where you can find it. I’ll warn you though, it is one of the dumbest things you’ll ever watch…like eat your brain cells dumb.

The TUF 10 Finale ratings are in, and as expected they’re bigger than any other TUF finale the UFC has ever put on. Interestingly enough, the average and peak viewership numbers are just below the numbers Strikeforce and Fedor put up on CBS, though to be fair, CBS is available in approximately 16 million more households than Spike TV.