DaytonDailyNews.com

The spring and early summer will be an intensely busy time for the country's top mixed-martial-arts organizations, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Following a successful March 7 event in Columbus, the UFC recently announced a full slate of events through July.

UFC Fight Night 18 takes place April 1 in Nashville, Tenn; UFC 97 is set for April 18 in Montreal; UFC 98 (May 23) and UFC 100 (July 11) both take place in Las Vegas; and June 13's UFC 99 marks the UFC's debut in Germany.

West Chester Twp.'s Rich Franklin (24-4) headlines the German event against Wanderlei Silva (32-9-1) on pay per view. Franklin recently moved to 205 pounds, and Silva recently announced his intentions of dropping to middleweight. So UFC official compromised and scheduled the fight at a catch-weight of 195 pounds.

Franklin should be fully healed from a scratched cornea he suffered in a January split-decision loss to Dan Henderson.

Headed to Showtime

After scooping up key fighter contracts and a broadcast deal from the now-defunct EliteXC organization, Strikeforce has slated two major events that will air on Showtime.

The April 11 event features an intriguing main event between former middleweight champ Frank Shamrock (23-9-2) and former UFC competitor and current lightweight Nick Diaz (18-7). The bout will be held at a catch-weight of 179 pounds.

The two headliners (and noted trash-talkers) didn't disappoint during last week's L.A. press conference.

"Nick, God bless you," Shamrock said. "Thanks for stepping up. When I punch your head through the second row, hopefully there will be somebody there to catch you."

Also slated for the card are Strikeforce lightweight champ Josh Thomson (16-2) vs. Gilbert Melendez (14-2), Benji Radach (19-4) vs. Scott Smith (14-5) and Hitomi Akano (14-5) vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (6-1).

Strikeforce also plans a May event (date: TBD) headlined by former EliteXC champs Robbie Lawler (16-4) and Jake Shields (22-4-1). Strikeforce light-heavyweight champ Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Joey Villasenor, Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante, Phil Baroni and West Chester Twp.'s Jorge Gurgel are also expected to compete.

MMA on ESPN

For the first time ever, ESPN will air MMA events.

The cable network will host Bellator Fighting Championships, an upstart organization headed by former boxing executive Bjorn Rebney. The organization recently struck a major sponsorship with Ford and has signed many of the sport's top Latino fighters.

Events air every Saturday night from April 4 to June 20 on ESPN Deportes.

Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, a content partner site of Yahoo! Sports. For the latest MMA news and rumors, go to www.mmajunkie.com.