A Series of Stacked UFC Cards is Approaching

After UFC 100, the UFC was riding an incredible high.

All eyes were on the promotion as they looked to deliver the biggest PPV in the history of the company. Mainstream media coverage of the UFC was at an all-time high, thanks in large part to the emergence of Brock Lesnar as the promotion's biggest star.

UFC 100, which would end up drawing the biggest PPV numbers in the history of the company, didn't disappoint. From Brock Lesnar's post-fight antics to Dan Henderson's earth-shattering knockout of Michael Bisping to George St. Pierre's surgical dismantling of Thiago Alves, UFC 100 had a bit of everything for everybody.

The future was very bright for the UFC.

Unfortunately for the UFC, the promotion was beset for a rash of injuries. Even worse, it was some of the promotion's biggest stars that succumbed to the injury bug.

Brock Lesnar had to pull out of UFC 106 because of his battle with diverticulitis.

Lyoto Machida was injured in his battle with Shogun Rua.

Georges St. Pierre injured his groin in his UFC 100 fight against Thiago Alves.

Anderson Silva required surgery on his elbow.

Chuck Liddell was "retired". Dan Henderson couldn't agree on a contract and signed with Strikeforce. The list went on and on.

Suddenly, all of the momentum that the UFC possessed after UFC 100 was gone. It was as if someone had stuck the promotion with a pin, and the air was slowly escaping.

The promotion was suddenly scrambling to fill cards. Vitor Belfort was brought in to fight against Rich Franklin at UFC 103. The proposed match-up between Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin was scrapped so that Carwin could challenge Lesnar at UFC 106, but the heavyweight champ was forced to pull out due to injury. UFC 108 was ravaged by injuries. UFC 103 to UFC 109 contained a number of cards that were severely altered by injuries. Overall, these cards were certainly a step down from the overall quality of previous events.

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That was the bad news.

The good news? All of the company's biggest stars on set to return (even Brock Lesnar, according to numerous reports), and the promotion is set to post a string of MONSTER shows that will have casual and hardcore fans salivating.

Let's quickly go over some of the epic cards that are quickly approaching:

UFC 110 - Nogueira vs Velasquez, Silva vs Bisping
UFC 111 - St. Pierre vs Hardy, Mir vs Carwin
UFC 112 - Silva vs Belfort, Penn vs Edgar
UFC 113 - Machida vs Rua, Rampage vs Evans
UFC Fight Night 21 - Vera vs Jones

That is a ridiculously strong run of cards - can you recall four straight PPV cards of such a high quality? I can't - after a dry period, the UFC is coming back strong.

After that, you have UFC 114 (on Memorial Day weekend) and UFC 115 in Vancouver. I can guarantee you that these will both be stacked shows as well. Then, after that, you will have the July PPV show, as well as the big event in Boston in August. My gut feeling is that Lesnar will be back by the summer, and that he will be fighting the winner of Mir/Carwin in his first fight back.

In short - untold riches for UFC fans who have had to "suffer" through a pretty dry period for the company.

This is a big opportunity for Dana White and the UFC. Boxing dropped the ball when the Mayweather / Pacquiao fight was called off. With a string of strong cards and the possible return of Brock Lesnar, the UFC could snatch the spotlight back from boxing over the coming months and never look back.

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