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The UFC is in the process of laying the groundwork for an April 17 show to counter the Strikeforce on CBS offering, MMA Fighting has learned.

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.

When reached by MMA Fighting on Thursday night, UFC President Dana White would not confirm or deny the possibility of the event.

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When Dan Henderson steps into the cage against Jake Shields on April 17, it will be his first fight since UFC 100, more than nine months earlier. That's the longest layoff Henderson has had in more than five years, and Henderson acknowledges that getting into peak physical condition after such a long layoff is a concern.

With the long-rumored April 17 Strikeforce on CBS card now official, new details continue to leak out.

Among Tuesday's news items revealed on Sirius' The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo: the CBS broadcast portion of the event -- scheduled for a two-hour block -- may feature only three bouts.

The cause of the decision is simple: all three fights will be conducted as championship matches, and the network has to plan for the possibility that all three fights could go the 25-minute time limit, making a fourth match a difficult proposition.

If things go right for Strikeforce and CBS over the next six weeks, their April 17 MMA show will feature Herschel Walker returning to the cage in addition to a lightweight title fight of Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki, a light heavyweight title fight of Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammed Lawal and a main event of Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson for the middleweight title.

But while CBS wants Walker on the card, it's no sure thing that he'll participate. And as great as those other three fights are for hard-core MMA fans, there are potential problems with having three title fights on one card.

The long-rumored Strikeforce middleweight title bout between Jake Shields and Dan Henderson is finally official, according to Shields, who Twittered the news on Monday afternoon.

The event will take place on April 17 on CBS.

By posting the news, however, Shields unintentionally confirmed that international heavyweight star Fedor Emelianenko will not compete at the event. Emelianenko, whose M-1 team is currently in the midst of trying to renegotiate his deal with Strikeforce, would headline any event in which he was participating.

Mixed martial arts fans have been anxiously awaiting word about what's next for Strikeforce, which has been rumored to have another big card on CBS coming up in April. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed Thursday that Strikeforce will have a card in Nashville on April 17 but said fans will have to wait just a little bit longer for any details.

"We've been putting most of our efforts into the fight tomorrow night," Coker said of the Strikeforce Challengers card on Friday in San Jose. "But we'll have some announcements next week, for sure. ... We will be having a fight in Nashville on April 17, but the rest of the information we'll be announcing next week."

With less than two months to go before Strikeforce is expected to return to CBS for its second go-round, the event remains shrouded in mystery.

According to various sources, no venue has been selected and no bout agreements have been signed.

While recent reports have suggested an April 17 date in Nashville, Tenn., neither Strikeforce or CBS representatives or independent sources could confirm a definitive date or location for the event.

Since Anderson Silva knocked out Rich Franklin at UFC 64 in 2006, there's been an undisputed king of the middleweight division in mixed martial arts. The rankings of the best middleweights in the sport have seen their share of shakeups, but no one doubted that the UFC middleweight champion was at the top of the heap.

It's also been generally understood since then that if any middleweight could beat Silva, that man would be at the top of the middleweight rankings. Sure, Patrick Cote and Thales Leites were relatively weak opponents who didn't seriously threaten Silva, but Cote and Leites were each on five-fight winning streaks when they fought Silva. There's something fundamentally different about Silva's newest opponent, Demian Maia.

According to UFC President Dana White, Chael Sonnen is now the UFC's No. 1 middleweight contender, thanks to his UFC 109 win over Nate Marquardt.

It's hard to envision Sonnen giving Anderson Silva much of a fight, but then again it's hard to envision anyone at 185 pounds giving Anderson Silva much of a fight. And since Sonnen's record is now 24-10-1, and since Sonnen has now dominated three very good fighters -- Marquardt, Yushin Okami and Dan Miller -- in his last three fights, it's hard to argue that Sonnen should be next in line in the UFC.

See how Sonnen and the rest of the middleweight division stack up in our latest rankings of the top 10 middleweights in MMA.

Strikeforce has a lot planned for 2010 such as the crowning of new champions, potential Strikeforce-DREAM unification title bouts and a second live card on CBS.

MMAFighting discusses the promotion's future stars and what could be in store this year for the former regional promotion.

Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields will serve as the grappling coach on Chuck Liddell's team on The Ultimate Fighter 11, Shields revealed Wednesday.

Shields leaves Friday for Las Vegas to begin taping the eleventh season for the next two months. The show, featuring all middleweights, premieres March 31 on Spike TV.

Dan Henderson has accomplished a lot in his MMA career, but he will now forever be known as the first star fighter to turn down an offer from the UFC to sign with Strikeforce. Only time will tell if his decision will prove to be a wise one or not.

The former Olympic wrestler and PRIDE champion met with the media late last week to discuss why he chose to leave the UFC and why he asked Scott Coker for an opportunity to fight the organization's current middleweight champion Jake Shields in his first fight, which is rumored to happen in April on CBS. Check out the video of the press conference below.