UFC just sent a release confirming Kimbo Slice vs. Matt Mitrione for 5/8 in Montreal. The match had been on the schedule for that night for some time. There had been serious talk of making a change in plans and having Slice, the most proven television drawing card in the sport, headline on 4/17 head-to-head with the Strikeforce show on CBS.
Without Kimbo, it’s not clear who the UFC has for a main event in April. The show originally was rumored to feature Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, but those rumors quickly disappeared. Along with the injury to Mike Swick, one has to wonder if the UFC is considering scrapping this proposed show altogether.
It’s also worth noting that in the increasingly strategic chess game between Strikeforce and the UFC, this could easily be a bluff intended to trick Strikeforce into committing to April 17th. Nobody should confuse a press release with anything final.
[UPDATE] by Scott Haber: The Kimbo-Mitrione fight is now (finally) on the official event page for UFC 113, and Thomas Gerbasi has a separate write-up announcing the fight on UFC.com