First and Worst is an ongoing series for MMARatings.net, where every week Adam will make his pick for the best and worst newly-announced fight of the past week (Monday to Sunday). If you’d like to see any additions to this series, hit him up on Twitter @MMAdamMartin.
First: Yushin Okami vs. Hector Lombard, UFC on FUEL TV 8
My pick for best fight announced over the last week is easily
the middleweight bout between Yushin Okami and Hector Lombard, which will take
place at UFC on FUEL TV 8 this March in Japan.
The winner of this fight moves one step closer to a shot at the
UFC middleweight championship, especially if it’s Lombard, since Okami has
already had his shot at Anderson Silva.
If you ask me, I think the fight is being set up so Lombard
gets a KO victory over a fading veteran with a name, but Okami is a smothering
wrestler and you can never count him out of a fight.
Remember, Okami has the second-most wins in UFC middleweight
division history behind only Silva, so he’s clearly a tough man to defeat. But
if anyone can do it it’s Lombard, who has the judo base to keep this fight on
the feet, and the knockout power in his fists to test Okami’s chin.
In two of Okami’s last four fights, he’s been knocked out cold,
while we all saw what Lombard did in his last outing at UFC on FX 6 to Rousimar Palhares. Yes, Lombard lost to Tim Boetsch, who knocked out Okami, but MMA Math
doesn’t usually work, and this is likely to be another example of that.
Expect Lombard to knock Okami senseless and to be matched up
with Chris Weidman in a No. 1 contender fight. If Okami wins, it’s hard to deny
that he’s a top middleweight contender, but there’s no way the UFC puts him in
with Silva anytime soon, meaning Okami is entering Jon Fitch title purgatory,
and really, is only fighting for money at this point, since he’ll never be No.
1 in the world.
Worst: Rick Story vs. Sean Pierson, UFC 158
My pick for worst fight announced this past week is a
welterweight tilt between Rick Story and Sean Pierson, which takes place at UFC
158 in Montreal this March.
My problem with this fight isn’t that it doesn’t make sense as
far as the rankings go, because if we’re going by rankings it does make sense.
My problem with this fight is that it’s designed to get Story a knockout win
over a veteran on the downside of his career.
Although Story was red-hot just two years ago when he defeated
Johny Hendricks and Thiago Alves in back-to-back nights, he’s cooled down
considerably with three losses in his last four fights, and is no longer viewed
as a contender.
Pierson, meanwhile, has won back-to-back fights, but they were
against Jack Hecht and Lance Benoist. Hecht has already been cut, and Benoist
will be cut with another loss. They are just wins on paper, and don’t mean that
Pierson is making a marvelous push in the late stages of his career.
In the third round of his UFC 152 bout against Benoist, Pierson
was knocked down and hurt badly and suffered a concussion. He hasn’t fought in
months, and hasn’t been back in training for that long. Going up against a
young and hungry fighter in Story, Pierson is likely going to get hurt and get
hurt badly. I think he should have taken off more time to protect his brain
from further damage.
I don’t want to count Pierson out, because he’s a fellow
Canadian and does have a 3-2 record in the UFC. But this fight was booked so
Story can get back on track with a knockout win, and that’s exactly what I see
happening. And if it does, don’t be surprised if it’s Pierson’s last MMA fight
ever.
