Instead of being a typical Negative Nancy and decrying the lack of quality mixed martial arts (MMA) over the past few months, let's instead try to be optimistic about the future.

It's looking bright.

Indeed, even if we're only focusing our energy on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Strikeforce -- and let's not kid ourselves, that's exactly the case -- the forecast from now until the New Year's Day calls for scattered bouts of extreme entertainment.

And damn it, we need it.

After a tumultuous few months with the injury bug running wild on what seemed like half the UFC roster, the remainder of the year looks promising, assuming there isn't another surge of injuries mixed with controversy and general malaise.

But again, let's not be negative about this. Let's instead hope there are few, if any, changes and look ahead at what should be an incredibly awesome blitz of beautiful violence from some of the best athletes in the world.

Hold on to your butts, Maniacs, here's what the schedule looks like as of this writing (subject to change, of course):

UFC 152: "Jones vs. Belfort," Sept. 22, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort (UFC light heavyweight title)
Joseph Benavidez vs. Demetrious Johnson (UFC flyweight title)
Michael Bisping vs Brian Stann
Matt Hamill vs Vladimir Matyushenko
Cub Swanson vs. Charles Oliveira
Igor Pokrajac vs. Vinny Magalhaes
TJ Grant vs Evan Dunham
Sean Pierson vs. Lance Benoist
Jimy Hettes vs. Marcus Brimage
Seth Baczynski vs. Simeon Thoresen
Mitch Gagnon vs. Walel Watson
Kyle Noke vs. Charlie Brenneman

UFC on FUEL TV 5: "Struve vs. Miocic," Sept. 29, 2012, Nottingham, England

Stefan Struve vs. Stipe Miocic
Dan Hardy vs. Amir Sadollah
Brad Pickett vs. Yves Jabouin
Paul Sass vs. Matt Wiman
John Hathaway vs. John Maguire
Che Mills vs. Duane Ludwig
Kyle Kingsbury vs. Jimi Manuwa
Andy Ogle vs. Akira Corassani
Tom Watson vs. Brad Tavares
Pascal Krauss vs. Gunnar Nelson
Jason Young vs. Robbie Peralta
Fabio Maldonado vs. Jorgen Kruth

Strikeforce: "Melendez vs. Healy," Sept. 29, 2012, Sacramento, California

Gilbert Melendez vs. Pat Healy (Strikeforce lightweight title)
Josh Thomson vs. Caros Fodor
Gian Villante vs. Guto Inocente
Adriano Martins vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg
Quinn Mulhern vs. Jorge Santiago
Mike Kyle vs. Dion Staring
Jorge Gurgel vs. Mizuto Hirota
Nah-Shon Burrell vs. Yuri Villefort
Amanda Nunes vs. Cat Zingano

UFC on FX 5: "Browne vs. Bigfoot," Oct. 5, 2012, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Travis Browne vs. Antonio Silva (Hoss fight)
Jake Ellenberger vs. Jay Hieron
John Dodson vs. Jussier da Silva
Justin Edwards vs. Josh Neer
Jeremy Stephens vs. Yves Edwards
Michael Johnson vs. Danny Castillo
Dennis Hallman vs. Thiago Tavares
Jacob Volkmann vs. Shane Roller
Bart Palaszewski vs. Diego Nunes
Darren Yuenoyama vs. Phil Harris
Carlo Prater vs. Marcus LeVesseur
Aaron Simpson vs. Mike Pierce

UFC 153: "Aldo vs. Edgar," Oct. 13, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC featherweight title)
Quinton Jackson vs. Glover Teixeira
Erick Silva vs. Jon Fitch
Phil Davis vs. Wagner Prado
Demian Maia
Rony Jason vs. Sam Sicilia
Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Geronimo dos Santos
Gleison Tibau vs. Francisco Drinaldo
Diego Brandao vs. Joey Gambino
Sergio Moraes vs. Renee Forte
Luiz Cane vs. Chris Camozzi
Cristiano Marcello vs. Reza Madadi

UFC on FUEL TV 6: "Le vs. Franklin," Nov. 10, 2012, Macau, China

Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le
Tom DeBlass vs. Riki Fukuda
Stanislav Nedkov vs. Thiago Silva
Mac Danzig vs. Takanori Gomi
Jeff Hougland vs. Takeya Mizugaki
John Lineker vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Paulo Thiago
Marcelo Guimaraes vs. Hyun Gyu Lim
Alex Caceres vs. Kyung Ho Kang

UFC 154: "St. Pierre vs. Condit," Nov. 17, 2012, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Georges St. Pierre vs. Carlos Conit (UFC welterweight title)
Johny Hendricks vs. Martin Kampmann
Tom Lawlor vs. Francis Carmont
Patrick Cote vs. Alessio Sakara
Mark Bocek vs. Rafael dos Anjos
Mark Hominick vs. Pablo Garza
Rodrigo Damm vs. Antonio Carvalho
Stephen Thompson vs. Besam Yousef

UFC on Fox 5: "Henderson vs. Diaz," Dec. 8, 2012, Seattle, Washington

Ben Henderson vs. Nate Diaz (UFC lightweight title)
Mauricio Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson
B.J. Penn vs. Rory MacDonald
Brendan Schaub vs. Lavar Johnson
Mike Swick vs. Matt Brown
Dennis Siver vs. Eddie Yagin
Ramsey Nijem vs. Joe Proctor
Scott Jorgensen vs. John Albert
Tim Means vs. Abel Trujillo
Daron Cruichshank vs. Henry Martinez
Michael Chiesa vs. Rafaello Oliveira

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 16 Finale, Dec. 15, 2012, Las Vegas, Nevada

Shane Carwin vs. Roy Nelson

UFC 155: "Dos Santos vs. Velasquez," Dec. 29, 2012, Las Vegas, Nevada

Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez (UFC heavyweight title)
Chael Sonnen vs. Forrest Griffin
Gray Maynard vs. Joe Lauzon
Matt Mitrione vs. Phil De Fries

That's without including the Strikeforce fight card that hasn't been created yet around October or November for a show to be headlined by Daniel Cormier vs. Frank MIr.

Talk about loaded up for battle. Let's all pray to the fight gods that this schedule stays intact.