The event will likely be UFC Fight Night 22. Fights for the card have not yet been named. Mike Swick was expected to fight Matt Serra on the event, but Swick has to undergo surgery on an arm injured during his February loss to Paulo Thiago.

UFC President Dana White discussed Toney and his MMA debut with Yahoo Sports:

“We threw the kitchen sink at Brock when he came in. Are we going to do that same thing with James? I don’t know. To be 100 percent honest with you, all [expletive] aside, I haven’t thought it out.

“I like James Toney. He’s one of the greatest boxers ever. I have tremendous respect for him. He said he wanted to fight in the UFC and I was interested. Now he’s here and I have to figure out what to do with him. What we won’t do is make a freak show out of it. I’d be the first to scream if someone else did that, so I’m not going to do it.

“Hey, I don’t want this to be seen as a joke, and it’s not like Herschel Walker or Canseco or any of those guys. James Toney is a fighter. The worst thing anyone can ever say to me is that they were watching one of my fights and they changed the channel. That’s why I’ll never put [expletive] fights on.

“James is an interesting case. We know how much talent he has as a boxer and he insists he’ll surprise people by how much MMA he knows. I’ve still got some thinking to do. But if we promote him and he does well and that raises his profile and he gets a Klitschko fight and makes a lot of money for himself and [boxing promoter Dan] Goossen, I’d be cool with that. But James came to me and he literally chased me around the country to do it, so I’m giving him the chance. We’ll get it figured out one way or another.”

– Welterweight Claude Patrick and undefeated heavyweight Travis Browne have signed with the UFC and will make their debuts in June.

The event will be headlined by the Strikeforce debut of Dan Henderson against middleweight champion Jake Shields.

The event will also feature light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki.

The event begins at 9pm ET on Saturday, April 17 and will be delayed on the west coast.

I know I’m going to fight soon. I’m going to have a great surprise for my fans what date I’m going to fight. I’m so close to signing my next fight, we’ll talk about things a little bit more, and I think I’m going to be fighting soon.

It’s a great match because [Akiyama's] an incredible fighter. He’s got an Olympic gold medal. He’s had great performances in Dream in Japan, (he’s) very famous there. I think it’s a great opportunity, one more really tough opponent, and I’m going to prove in the future it’s possible I can be with the best fighters in 185.

The next is (Akiyama) and he is number one, and the number two is Bisping because I’m going to give a rematch to him.

• UFC Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia
• UFC Lightweight Championship: BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar
• Matt Hughes vs. Renzo Gracie
• Terry Etim vs. Rafael dos Anjos
• Kendall Grove vs. Mark Munoz

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Phil Davis vs. Alexander Gustafsson
• Paul Taylor vs. John Gunderson
• Nick Osipczak vs. Rick Story
• Paul Kelly vs. Matt Veach
• DaMarques Johnson vs. Brad Blachburn
• Mostapha Al Turk vs. Jon Madsen

• UFC Welterweight Championship: Georges St-Pierre (c) vs. Dan Hardy
• Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship: Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
• Ben Saunders vs. Jake Ellenberger
• Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves
• Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

• Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
• Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes
• Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman
• Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal
• Matt Riddle vs. Greg Soto

Arlovski will return to action against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva at the Strikeforce’s May 15 Showtime-televised event in St. Louis.

“I cannot wait to get into the ring and show the world what I have been working on the last few months,” wrote Arlovski (15-7). Arlovski who won five-straight fights over Roy Nelson, Ben Rothwell, and Fabricio Werdum between 2006 and 2008 before losing to Fedor Emelianenko in Affliction last January and then dropping his Strikeforce debut to Brett Rogers in June.

Bisping (18-3) is coming off a loss against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 110. Miller (11-3) is coming off two straight losses to Damien Maia and Chael Sonnen.

UFC 114 is expected to be headlined by “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans.