UFC President Dana White today confirmed to The Wrestling Observer that the UFC will go head-to-head with Strikeforce’s recently-announced April 17 card on CBS with an event that is expected to air on Spike TV.

Headlining matchups are in the works for the event, likely to be dubbed UFC Fight Night 22, with former welterweight champion Matt Serra and Mike Swick reportedly in talks to meet in the card’s co-main event.

Strikeforce is believed to have the option to shift its event, headlined by Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson, to April 24 to avoid a showdown with the UFC, but the move would put it opposite “WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber,” the pay-per-view debut  for UFC sister promotion World Extreme Cagefighting featuring featherweight champ Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber.

Counter-programming is not new territory for the world’s top promotion, who staged a hastily booked UFC Fight Night 14 card, headlined by Anderson Silva’s light heavyweight debut vs. James Irvin, opposite Affliction’s pay-per-view debut in July 2008. The UFC also previously aired UFC 100 on Spike in August opposite Strikeforce’s “Carano vs. Cyborg” and debuted several pay-per-view main events on Spike against Strikeforce’s November debut on CBS.

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Pictured: Matt Serra