Saturday's UFC 103 marked the end of a run that saw the organization roll out three pay-per-view events, an Ultimate Fight Night and the debut of The Ultimate Fighter in the span of eight weeks.

A yeoman-like effort even for the biggest name in the business, the UFC enters the fall with a
five-week respite before Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua take to the cage for UFC 104 in Los Angeles.

Calm down; the world isn't going to end just because the UFC is on hiatus.

In fact, this is a golden opportunity to expand your horizons and step outside the Ultimate Fighting Championships bubble for a couple of weeks and get acquainted with some of the other fighters and organizations in Mixed Martial Arts.

Yes, there are other organizations besides the UFC.

Japanese organization World Victory Road is first up in this UFC-less stretch, as Sengoku Tenth Battle takes place on September 23 from the Saitama Super Arena.

Headlining the show is Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, the former EliteXC Heavyweight champion who earlier this summer stated that a win here would put him into a November title fight with fellow steroid abuser Josh Barnett.

While Silva may be the biggest name on the card, look for Nick Thompson and Dan Hornbuckle to put on the best performance. Thompson is a talented veteran of just about every organization to ever exist, while Hornbuckle is coming off a vicious head kick knockout of Akihiro Gono.

Two days later, Strikeforce rolls out the third installment of their Challenger series. In addition to the Strikeforce debut of Ray Sefo, rising prospect Tyron Woodley looks to extend his winning streak to four against veteran Zach Light.

In the main event, undefeated Zak Cummings takes his 10-0 record into the cage to face Tim Kennedy, the former Army Ranger who returned to full-time fighting in June with a win over the aforementioned Nick Thompson.

Canada gets involved in the action early in October with the most UFC-friendly card on the calender, as Maximum Fighting Championships (MFC) 22 - Payoff lands in Edmonton loaded with recognizable names.

For those fawning for fighters they know, MFC 22 offers UFC veterans like Marvin Eastman, David Heath, and Pete Spratt, as well TUF 4 winner Travis Lutter taking on Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald.

What is more impressive is that none of these name brand fighters make the main event, as that honor goes to MFC Lightweight champion Antonio "Mandingo" McKee and Brazilian Carlo Prater.

McKee is riding an eight-fight winning streak and hasn't lost since a 2003 decision to Karo Parisyan, while Prater is a veteran of more than 30 fights and holds wins over Spencer Fisher, Melvin Guillard and Carlos Condit.

As entertaining as each of those cards will surely be, the real week to watch for is the first week of October, as championship action takes to the ring on Tuesday, October 6 with DREAM 11 before the rescheduled WEC 43 lands in San Antonio for Cerrone vs. Henderson.

Honestly, DREAM...