Just a few weeks ago the MMA-verse was bracing itself for a battle of promotions in Nashville, Tennessee of all places. But this week it appears that the battle will end with whimper rather than a bang (note: that doesn't mean the "war" is over, which started the second the UFC began countering every Strikeforce show with a replay).

The prevailing view within the MMA community is that the UFC will not go forth with a rival show on April 17^th. While the promotion has made inquires with Spike and venues there hasn't been the same push from a fight stand point. Also, Zuffa is running out of time to book an event in Nashville (note: they could still do it in Vegas).

Michael David Smith states that this may be the UFC simply messing with Strikeforce and trying to create uncertainty around the card.

Fightlinker thinks the UFC's disappearance from April 17th has more to do with the lack of a quality fight to headline the purported card. Ironic considering that the great injury blight created the backlog of talent, which is now all scheduled for this spring thus not allowing true flexibility or availability with the promotions talent. It should be noted that the only time the UFC ran a true counter show was during Affliction's pay-per view debut. WKR thinks there is a potential X factor that is important to point out-CBS.

Currently no one is quite sure what the network will do from a promotion stand point. If the UFC went forth with a date on the seventeenth WKR believes that a counter event would make it far more likely that CBS would run more, not less, promotional material during the NCAA tournament. Such an event would give the executives at CBS who believe in MMA ammunition to argue for more involvement not less. Four weeks of commercials may be enough to create a relatively large cross over audience, which creates its own risk for Zuffa. How the counter event would be perceived if it had a significant fight but was beaten by CBS. What would the narrative be if the promotion went with a second-tier draw and was soundly beaten in the ratings department? These are all unknowns but the potential volatility may have given Zuffa pause from pulling the trigger (note: for more listen to the second half of today's podcast).

Besides Scott Coker said he wanted to help out the WEC and Reed Harris by not putting fights on CBS the same night. The people over at Zuffa had to notice that, right? People at the UFC have to have a heart, right?