UFC fourth quarter turned from gold to ashes

Alright, ashes may be too strong of a word but after the UFC's superb summer the winter appears cold and bitter as oppose to roasting chestnuts on the fire.

Let's recap the summer real quick.

UFC 99 kicked us off with some Wiener Schnitzell and Dunkel in Zuffa's first event in Deutschland. From there MMA fans were treated to the biggest UFC event to date, UFC 100. Pay-per view buys estimates are around 1.6 million buys and the event was covered as the equivalent of the De La Hoya-Mayweather mega event of 2007. Next was Zuffa starting a "partnership" with Affliction and they almost captured the unicorn in Fedor Emelianenko. UFC 101 captured the momentum of UFC 100 and offered us the return of good Anderson Silva as oppose to shuck and dive Anderson Silva. Oh yeah, B.J. Penn proved he can still kick ass at 155lbs. August wrapped up with UFC 102, which gave us an instant classic between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture despite the fight being two years two late.

Since summer technically doesn't end until September 22nd we can still count UFC Fight Night 19 and UFC 103. While there are no title fights we get to see some legit battles e.g. Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin, Junior dos Santos vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" and Roger Huerta vs. Gray Maynard.

Sprinkled throughout all the events were leaks and reports about the UFC's fourth quarter schedule, which appeared equally stacked. Shane Carwin became the number one heavyweight contender and will fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 106. UFC 104 still had a light heavyweight title fight between Lyoto Machida and "Shogun" Rua plus Ben Rothwell will make his UFC debut against Cain Velasquez.

But the schedule lost much of its luster in these past few days. B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez went from headlining a free event on Spike to being the main event of UFC 107; not to mention that the rumored network television deal they were suppose tot headline has all but evaporated. "Rampage" Jackson bailed on his fight with Rashad Evans for the A-Team and UFC 105 is still without a main event. Then there is Anderson Silva's sudden elbow surgery and the muddled welterweight division limping towards finding a number one contender for the injured Georges St. Pierre.

UFC fight cards were never suppose to be about star power but rather talent laden cards with exciting fights. Certainly the UFC will still put on excellent fight cards but the loss of a main event, television deal and other events takes some of the wind out of Zuffa's sails.