The Return of the Mega Event?

It has been an eventful couple of days as fight rumors keep trickling out of the Zuffa offices as if someone forgot to turn off the water spout. While some reports are official, e.g., UFC 111's main events, the preponderance of fight rumors make it appear that the spring of 2010 may be loaded with three mega events in a row.

For the record, the "mega event" never really left; it was merely delayed as the fourth quarter of 2009 was marred by unfortunate circumstances. Injuries, illness and Hollywood prevented several marquee fights from happening. In fact only two of the five UFC titles were defended in the latter half of 2009. But all those fighters who were injured, ill or acting seem to be returning at the same time making the spring of 2010 a possible "mega season" for the UFC. 

As of this moment this is what the rumored schedule appears like:

UFC 111: Newark, New Jersey - March 27th
Champ Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy
Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin for interim title
Thiago Alves vs. Jon Fitch

UFC 112: Abu Dhabi, UAE - April 10th
Champ B.J. Penn vs. Gray Maynard/Frankie Edgar*
Champ Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort*
Renzo Gracie vs. Matt Hughes

UFC 113: Montreal, Quebec - May 1st
Champ Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua*
Rashad Evans vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson*

*- rumored

UFC 111 will certainly be a mega event as Zuffa has confirmed the two title fights for UFC 111 and the bout between Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch has been independently confirmed. (Some quick food for thought: Perhaps the UFC is trying to show off their product to New York, which takes up MMA legalization again this year.)

UFC 112 is a strange animal because B.J. Penn stated that he is fighting on the card and the assumption is that he will fight either Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard (Maynard fights on Monday). Tatame recently reported that Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort have booked gyms in Abu Dhabi leading them to conclude that Silva vs. Belfort will occur at UFC 112.

UFC 113 is rumored to feature the light heavyweight rematch between Machida and Rua. Dana White also recently commented that he would like to see Evans vs. Jackson in May. While there are two UFC events scheduled for May White repeatedly used the term "up there" implying Montreal as White was located in Las Vegas, the venue for the second UFC event in May.

As much of this is rumor it is all subject to change and with  UFC 114 and UFC 115 on the docket and not having rumored main events it is quite possible to see several of these rumored fights moved down the calendar. But if these cards materialize in their current structure, hold on to your butts because it will be a wild ride.