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The chances of the UFC holding a live event to counter Strikeforce’s second CBS event appear to be increasing by the minute. Dave Meltzer is reporting the UFC has put together an entire fight card for April 17.

Dana White confirmed today via text that UFC has completed a card for April 17th. The Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama match is not the main event. The only thing confirmed is they are trying to finalize a Matt Serra vs. Mike Swick semifinal fight today.

The report didn’t mention how it would be broadcast, but it’s probably safe to assume it would be a Spike TV card and not a pay-per-view. Speculation has been running rampant today that a Kimbo Slice vs. James Toney could headline the rumored card, however Kimbo’s manager Icy Mike says Kimbo’s plans to fight Matt Mitrione at UFC 113 haven’t changed and nothing is in the works to fight Toney. With the UFC holding three consecutive fight cards later this month and UFC 112 on April 10, their talent is already stretched pretty thin, so it’s anyone’s guess what the mystery main event will be.

What’s funny is this might end up backfiring on Zuffa. Josh Gross is reporting Strikeforce and CBS have the flexibility to push Strikeforce “Nashville” back a week to April 24, the same date as the WEC’s pay-per-view debut, and may do that if the UFC tries to counter-program them on April 17.

After officially announcing April 17 as the return for MMA on CBS, sources tell SI.com that CBS is willing to move the card back a week if, as rumored, the UFC decides to move ahead with counter-programing. That would put Strikeforce in direct competition with Zuffa’s first attempt at selling WEC on pay-per-view, and likely signal the commencement of major ground operations between the promotional companies.

It was initially thought that production of an April 24 MMA card on CBS was unlikely since the Showtime broadcast crew, led by producer David Dinkins Jr., was handling duties for the second round of the premium network’s Super Six 168-pound boxing tournament that night. But Kelly Kahl, the senior executive vice president of CBS prime time, told SI.com that it as his impression “things were fluid” regarding the production dates, though he didn’t know for certain.

If you have the option to go against a free UFC card or a $45 WEC card, you go with the latter all day, every day. Zuffa isn’t going to counter their own WEC pay-per-view with a live UFC card, so they might as well take the path of least resistance. Sure, it’s going to piss Zuffa off, but so what? You know they’re going to counter Strikeforce’s first pay-per-view with a free show regardless, so really what’s the difference? If you’re forced to fight, take your best shots while you can.

Update: Nothing is official yet, but word is getting around to the various media outlets that a live UFC event for April 17 in the works.

Though the company has not officially announced the event and it should not be considered a done deal, two separate sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed that the promotion has begun to ramp up its efforts over the last several hours and that Spike TV — the likely broadcast outlet for the show — has been informed of the decision.

Though several possible matchups have been buzzed about in recent days, MMA Fighting could not confirm the rumors of a Mike Swick vs. Matt Serra matchup. Swick has been out of the country on a trip to Thailand, just returning yesterday, and might need surgery on an injured arm. Serra, meanwhile, fought just one month ago and would prefer a return to action in the summer.

Another alleged rumor pitting Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama seems unlikely, as sources close to Silva told MMA Fighting that he is hopeful of a chance to fight on UFC 116 because the event takes place on his birthday, July 3, and in his new hometown of Las Vegas.

Scott Coker has also confirmed they have the flexibility to move their event if need be. Apparently, they initially opted to play nice and not counter WEC 48, but if the UFC is going to counter them, all bets are off.

“CBS had an opportunity to do the fight on the 24th and go after the WEC pay-per-view date, and they said, ‘No, let’s just do it on the 17th and be nice guys.’ Now that the counter-programming is coming their way, I think there is some fluidity in what could happen.”

“It hasn’t been decided yet,” Coler said. “I think we’re meeting probably Monday. But for now, everything is going to be locked and loaded for the 17th.”

Looks like a high-stakes game of chicken for now.

Remember when Ken Shamrock sued the UFC back in 2008 for not giving him the second fight on his contract after he retired? If not, here’s a quick refresher.

Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta made the media rounds in NYC today to talk about their sale to Flash Entertainment.

Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White appeared on CNBC earlier today to talk about their 10% sale of Zuffa to Flash Entertainment of Abu Dhabi.

Zuffa has confirmed last week’s report that Sheik Tahnoon of Abu Dhabi, or more specifically Flash Entertainment, has acquired a 10% minority share of the company. The official statement via UFC.com.

Remember when Dana White said Zuffa might be willing to sell a small stake in the UFC if the right partner came along?

Well, according to Five Oz., the right partner did come along, and he happens to be Sheik Tahnoon of Abu Dhabi.

FiveOuncesofPain.com has recently received reports from multiple sources extremely close to the situation indicating that the UFC has recently sold a minority percentage of the company to Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the former United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Sheik Tahnoon is well known throughout the grappling community as the founder of the no-gi submission Olympics, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club. Himself a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie, Shiek Tahnoon has been a long time supporter and practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu.

It’s no secret Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta were making trips to Abu Dhabi and spending time with Sheik Tahnoon. They both posted about it several times on Twitter in recent months. However, everyone assumed they were merely working on a deal to bring a UFC event to Abu Dhabi, which we now know will be UFC 112.

Apparently there was more to it. According to the report, Renzo Gracie, who was also in Abu Dhabi at one point with Dana White, helped broker the deal between Sheik Tahnoon and Zuffa. Additionally, Gracie’s UFC contract and scheduled fight against Matt Hughes at UFC 112 were described as “key components” of the deal.

The UFC has yet to confirm the report.

Fans and media members weren’t the only ones who were disgusted with Shinya Aoki’s actions immediately following the Mizuto Hirota bout at Dynamite!! 2009. World Victory Road was too, and now they’re demanding that FEG take action and “severely reprimand” Aoki for his behavior.

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

Condom Depot is the latest sponsor to get the boot from the UFC.

Betcha didn’t see this coming.

Versus’ Ariel Helwani outlined their shiny new broadcast deal with Zuffa this morning, and it came with a detail no one expected.

As part of VERSUS’ renewal deal, the network will air seven live WEC fights and two live UFC events in 2010, marking the first time that live UFC events will air on a national sports cable network. Also included in the renewal deal are digital media rights, giving VERSUS.com the ability to air one non-televised fight and behind-the-scenes footage from each live WEC Event.

Details regarding when the first live UFC event will air on the network will be announced in the near future.

It was believed that Spike owned the exclusive cable rights to the UFC, so this is definitely unexpected. Despite all the talk about merging the WEC with the UFC or at least transitioning its fighters over, which Dana White started by the way, Zuffa is going to make another run of it with the WEC. Except this time, they’re going to leverage the UFC brand to attract more viewers to Versus and ultimately the WEC.

That’s my impression of it anyhow, but MMA Payout also has some interesting theories.

It’s essentially an exploratory agreement that will allow Comcast to become more familiar with the property, and it’ll definitely add more fuel to the speculation that the UFC could be part of any new Comcast-NBCU sports network that comes out of the pending merger acquisition.

This agreement may also mean that Dana White’s dealings in Los Angeles (a secondary base for ESPN’s operations) have come to an impasse of sorts. However, it could also put some pressure on ESPN to meet some concessions regarding rights fees for the UFC.

Update: Here’s how the UFC was able to do the deal with Versus with their Spike deal in place.

The new Spike deal UFC signed gave them the rights to a limited number of events per year that they could put on a rival cable station, which at one point the hope was for those shows to be sold to ESPN.