The UFC's long-awaited debut In Canada will take place in April with Canadian fighter Jason MacDonald on the card. That's the word from MacDonald, anyway.

Last week at a Maximum Fighting Championships event in Edmonton, Jason MacDonald told fans that he was going to fight on an upcoming April UFC card in Canada. MacDonald says he got the news directly from UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva.

However, the 32-year-old fighter, who last dropped a unanimous decision to Yushin Okami in October, says an opponent, event location and possible venue for the show were not discussed -- though Montreal is a possibility.

MacDonald has flirted with a potential middleweight title shot over the past year, but he lost two pivotal fights that could have earned him the chance. He first suffered a second-round TKO to Rich Franklin at UFC 68 in March, and he then dropped the decision loss to Okami at UFC 77.

"I was slightly disappointed to have to wait until April to fight again, but in hindsight it might be good because I'm pretty busy these days," MacDonald wrote in his column. "And that kind of seems to be the trend now in terms of wait time when I look at some of the other guys. It seems to be four-to-six months between fights. The UFC has quite a few fighters, and by the time they cycle through all of them, it's tough to get fights sooner."

If a few things fall into place, the potential April event (which could be UFC 83) could also feature a UFC welterweight title unification bout -- with French-Canadian Georges St. Pierre in the main-event fight. Current champ Matt Serra was forced off UFC 79's fight card because of a herniated disc, and in his place, St. Pierre will fight Matt Hughes for an interim title.

When healed, Serra will meet the interim champ for a title-unification bout. If Serra has a quick recovery, and if St. Pierre beats Hughes (he's a 2-to-1 favorite), the Serra-St. Pierre bout could happen at Canada's April event. UFC President Dana White has often stated that he'd prefer to have St. Pierre on the UFC's first Canadian fight card.