Apocalypse Now! Five Things to Look Forward to in 2012

You could call John Cusack's 2012 a lot of things. Exciting. Tightly-scripted. Superbly performed. An edge-of-your-seat thrill-ride...with heart. But prophetic? Only those eggheads over at NASA know for sure. Until such time as we all sink into the ocean, then, here are a few things to look forward to this year...

A Revived UFC Welterweight Division

The title reign of Georges St. Pierre has been alternately fabulous and maddening. Consisting of victories over nearly every top-ten welterweight, certainly it's been absolute. This year, however, St. Pierre is tasked with nursing his knee injury and will be, for better or worse, removed from the 170-pound equation. His stifling rule has given way to a more open field of contention, an effect compounded by the recent knockout of perennial number-two man Jon Fitch. It seems that the division, once ruled by a caste of elites, is in the hands of a new crop of welterweight roughnecks, headed by interim title contenders Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit.

A Smaller, Stronger Strikeforce

With the dissolution of Strikeforce's heavyweight division, the organization has more capital and card space to devote to its other weight classes. Dana White's emerging involvement with the promotion further suggests that we'll see a more focused, relevant Strikeforce this year.

A Bigger, Stronger UFC Heavyweight Division

The UFC heavyweight division will enjoy an appreciable influx of talent in 2012, courtesy of Zuffa's purchase of Strikeforce. It's hard to tell for sure how much of a lasting impact these new fighters will have (remember that neither Heath Herring, Antonio Nogueira, nor Mirko Cro Cop quite fulfilled their promise after making the jump from PRIDE), but at least one of them has already made a big splash.

Flyweights in the UFC

Consider the upcoming tournament between Ian McCall, Demetrious Johnson, Yasuhiro Urushitani, and Joseph Benavidez. With an astounding cumulative record of 59-10-6, and an impressive thirty-two of those victories coming by way of (T)KO or submission, the tournament promises balls-to-the-wall action, and the winner will certainly have the claim to number one flyweight in the world. Not a bad way to kick off the 125-pound proceedings.

New Blood Climbing the Top 10

With his knockout of Vladimir Matyushenko, Alexander Gustaffson made it clear that he's ready for a shot at the upper echelon. Phil Davis will get one himself in his upcoming fight against Rashad Evans. Meanwhile, both Nate Diaz and featherweight Jimy Hettes saw a jump in rankings and visibility, respectively, with their recent victories at UFC 141. And there is, of course, the burgeoning new class of welterweights, including Rory Macdonald and Jake Ellenberger.

Outside the UFC, Michael Chandler heads into this new year with quite a bit of buzz following his recent submission of Eddie Alvarez, and his fellow Bellator fighters Eduardo Dantas and Pat Curran are likewise poised for a break-out year, with Dantas slated to fight Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky and Curran riding high off a knockout of Marlon Sandro this past August.

I'll be looking forward to these five things the most this year. What'd I miss?