One of the most popular points of speculation within the MMA community deals with how much mainstream media coverage will UFC 100 will receive? UFC officials and fans think that this event will be the biggest MMA story of 2009 --though many MMA media members think it will Carano vs. Cyborg-- and next week we will find out just how much mainstream coverage UFC 100 will receive. So pay close attention to the big sports websites, papers and stations. 

Zuffa does have one big advantage going into next week, its that their centennial event comes at a time when the rest of the sporting calendar is quiet. 

The NBA and NHL seasons are long over and free agency should be winding down, at least there should be no more mega trades. Also the NBA draft is also in the history books with the major deals or revelations forgotten, like Rubio going back to Spain.

NFL training camps are still a ways out and as long as Brett Farve doesn't sign with the Vikings everything should be pretty low-key on the football front. 

Wimbledon wraps up this Sunday freeing ESPN's morning time slots. That means ESPN First Take will be back on the air. Good news for Zuffa as First Take is one of the few shows that has regularly featured UFC fighters in the run-up to big events. 

The only sport that will be holding events is MLB. Next week baseball will be slowly plodding towards the All-Star game which will take place in St. Louis on the 14th, three days after UFC 100. So there will be competition along the lines of pre-All-Star hype. However, the big sports story next week will be the return of Manny Ramirez from his 50 game suspension for steroid use. While the Manny returns story will log a lot of hours, as will All-Star speculation, for the most part there isn't that much to talk about in the wide world of sports. 

With the media landscape being largely quiet, next week will be a great field-study of Zuffa's PR department and how editorial desks around the country view the UFC as a whole. Will Zuffa be able to sell UFC 100 as the biggest MMA story of the year? More importantly, will they sell it to the point where it garners a great deal attention from mainstream outlets? It will also be important to differentiate between shows that do or have covered the UFC and those that will be making their first leap into the MMA universe. Basically Jim Rome interview Brock Lesnar is not as a big of a coup as Bill Simmons writing an ESPN The Magazine piece.

Whatever happens next week it should be a great litmus test as to the state of the UFC, Zuffa and MMA as a whole. 

UFC 100 coverage