It seems that 2009 was the year of injuries and letdowns for the UFC and fans. Almost every card had some last-minute alteration to it. Here are our picks for the top 10 letdowns of UFC fight cards in 2009.

10. UFC 98 – Frank Mir vs Brock Lesnar

What Happened: Mir pulled out due to a back surgery. Fortunately, the fight was rescheduled to UFC 100.

Disappointment Level: “Low” The only annoying thing about this rescheduling was waiting two months for a better event.

9. UFC 108 – Gabriel Gonzaga vs Junior Dos Santos

What Happened: Gonzaga pulled out due to a staph infection. The fight has been rescheduled to an unknown date.

Disappointment Level: “Low to moderate” Santos looked great against Cro Cop and it would’ve been awesome to see his skills against a contender like Gonzaga. Other than that, it’s not a fight to lose sleep over.

UPDATE - Dos Santos is facing Gilbert Yvel at UFC 108

8. UFC 99 – Cain Velasquez vs Heath Herring

What Happened: Heath canceled due to an injury. Cheick Kongo stepped in a few weeks before the fight with little time to train and was beaten by unanimous decision.

Disappointment Level: “Moderate” At this point, people were more interested in this rising star than they were the matchup. We were just as satisfied seeing Cain maul Kongo.

7. UFC 107 – Thiago Alves vs Jon Fitch 2

What Happened: Alves pulled out due to an injury. Mike Pierce stepped in and is scheduled to fight Fitch at UFC 107.

Disappointment Level: “Annoying” Fortunately, Alves pulled out when UFC 105 and 106 were back to back. A lot of the disappointment was lost in the chaos of those two fights but once those fights were done, people realized just how great this fight could’ve been.

6. UFC 108 – Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Cain Velasquez

What Happened: Nogueira backed down due to a staph infection. The fight was canceled from the 108 fight card and it is unknown if the fight will occur.

Disappointment Level: “Obnoxious” Everyone has their eyes on Cain and wants to see what he’s made of. We also just saw Nogueira put on an impressive show against Couture at UFC 105. This seemed a perfect matchup for the winner of the Lesnar/Carwin bout (more on that later), until our dreams got smashed.

5. UFC 106 – Tito Ortiz vs Mark Coleman

What Happened: Coleman withdrew due to a knee injury (which spurred comments from Tito and then a backlash from Coleman). Forrest Griffin took Coleman’s place and beat Ortiz by a split decision.

Disappointment Level: “Sigh…” This was Ortiz’s return. What better than two former champs who’ve been around since the early days going at it? Ah yes, the smack talk. And the talk was great… until Coleman pulled the plug.

4. UFC 109 – Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort

What Happened: Silva canceled due to an elbow injury but reports and interviews might point that his elbows were fine and he was disinterested in fighting Belfort. It’s speculated that neither fighter will appear on the UFC 109 card.

Disappointment Level: “Wha-what?” People just want to see Anderson fight again. After his display at UFC 101 against Forrest Griffin, it put him at a level people didn’t realize he was on. Getting hyped up for a Silva fight just to have it fall off saddens an MMA fan’s heart.

3. UFC 108 – Lyoto Machida vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua 2

What Happened: After an extremely controversial decision, Dana White claimed that a rematch would happen as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Machida had a hand injury and the fight had to be postponed to an unknown date.

Disappointment Level: “Frustrating” The nuisance spurs mostly from the original fight rather than the setback. But still. We finally see Machida’s weak side without anything to show for it. Let’s get this over with and see who’s gonna take it.

2. UFC 106 – Brock Lesnar vs Shane Carwin

What Happened: Lesnar withdrew from the fight due to an illness he originally thought was swine flu. They tried to reschedule the fight for UFC 108 but after further testing, it was discovered that Lesnar had a hole in his intestine and would not be able to fight for a long time. Dana White hyped it up even more, saying Lesnar may never be able to fight again. Now it’s rumored that he’ll be healed in time for a fight in July, 2010.

Disappointment Level: “Aw, come on!” We were loving Carwin’s mockery of Lesnar so much, we started to get lost in it. Wondering what he’d say next to get at Brock. Then all of a sudden, the line is cut and we’re left with an unknown return.

1. UFC 108 – Rashad Evans vs Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

What Happened: The biggest letdown of the year, if not longer. Rampage wanted to film his new A-Team movie and asked to push the fight back, which caused Dana White to retort. Because of this, Rampage decided he was going to withdraw from the UFC and that was that. After months of mockery, the fight was rescheduled to have Rashad face Thiago Silva instead. A few weeks later, Rampage came back and said he’d honor his original contract continue fighting.

Disappointment Level: “Are you kidding me!?” We endure the standoff after Rampage beat Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92. Then we sit through an entire season of the Ultimate Fighter where they go at it every episode. And then… it’s gone. It doesn’t get much worse than that.

Bonus! 0. DMX vs Eric Martinez

What Happened: It’s rumored that DMX’s manager tried to arrange the fight so that DMX would win. When it wouldn’t go down, DMX pulled out because of “safety reasons.” Now they have Coolio taking his place. Even better.

Disappointment Level: “Who cares?” Either way we’re gonna watch a washed-up rapper from the 90’s make a fool out of himself. What more could we want?

Main event:

Lyoto Machida defeats Mauricio “Shogun” Rua via unanimous decision

Main card (Televised):

Cain Velasquez defeats Ben Rothwell via TKO (Strikes) Round 2
Gleison Tibau defeats Josh Neer via Unanimous Decision
Joe Stevenson defeats Spencer Fisher via technical knockout (strikes) in round two
Anthony Johnson defeats Yoshiyuki “Zenko” Yoshida via technical knockout (strikes) in round one
Ryan “Darth” Bader defeats Eric “Red” Schafer via unanimous decision

Under card (May not be broadcast):

Pat Barry defeats Antoni Hardonk via technical knockout (strikes) in round two
Chael Sonnen defeats Yushin Okami via unanimous decision
Jorge  Rivera defeats Rob Kimmons via technical knockout (strikes) in round three
Kyle Kingsbury defeats Razak Al-Hassan via split decision
Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve defeats Chase Gormley via submission (triangle choke) in round one

According to the report, Rua ruptured the ACL in his left knee, which is the same injury that forced a surgery after a UFC 76 loss to Forrest Griffin.Here’s the snip:

“Scheduled to make his return to the Octagon this June against Chuck Liddell at UFC 85 in London, light heavyweight star Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has instead been forced to withdraw from the bout due to a ruptured ACL in his left knee, the same injury he had surgery on to repair last October after his UFC 76 fight with Forrest Griffin. Surgery on the injured knee will be scheduled shortly, and there is no word on when Rua will be cleared to return to the Octagon.”

“Liddell’s opponent for UFC 85, which will be held at London’s O2 Arena on June 7th, will be announced shortly. As for Rua, he promises to be back and better than ever as soon as possible. “

Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (16-3) was looking forward to redeeming himself inside the Octagon after a poor performance against Griffin. Prior to his loss to Forrest Griffin, he was considered by many to be the number one ranked fighter in 205-pound category.

source: UFC.com

In a recent interview with SportsIllustrated.com the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell, indicated that his next opponent could be former Pride FC standout, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Chuck Liddell:

“Possibly Mauricia “Shogun” Rua. That’s what they’re saying. If it’s the June fight, it will probably be in London. But my trainer is trying to get it moved to Vegas.”

Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua is looking forward to avenging the loss of his good friend Wanderlei Silva, according to Tatame.com the fight is happening sometime in June.

Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (roughly translated):

“I confirmed that fight yesterday. Everything is agreed for June and I hope to make this a huge fight and represent my good team … For sure I’m going to avenge Wanderlei … he passed by Curitiba for a short time and then left to his city, but we got to get together and talk. We are going to make an exchange, but i don’t know when thats going to happen. Everything depends on the strategy my team has for this fight…. [Chuck] has a very good boxing and wrestling team. Liddell’s game is more standing, but it can be an error trying to take him down because it requires a lot of strength. I am going to try to improve my tactics with Alejo Morales, my brother and the rest of the team, but I can exchange with him and finish this fight standing.”