First and Worst: Week of February 24 – March 2, 2014

By Adam Martin

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: Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida, UFC 173

My pick for the best new fight announced this past week is the upcoming middleweight title fight between champion Chris Weidman and challenger Lyoto Machida. The bout takes place at UFC 173, and it will be one of the biggest fights of the year when it goes down.

The fight is only happening because Vitor Belfort was removed from the bout following the ban of TRT in Nevada. Since Belfort can’t get his levels down in time for the May 24 date of UFC 173, the promotion had to insert Machida in his place – and, thankfully, he’s just as interesting of a matchup for Weidman asBelfort was, if not more.

Machida is a puzzle, and not many fighters have figured him out. After being bounced out of the light heavyweight division following a controversial decision loss to Phil Davis at UFC 163, Machida has won back-to-back fights at 185 over Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi to become the de facto #1 contender with no Belfort. And considering he looked fantastic in both fights, and also considering the fact this is the former 205-pound champ we’re talking about here, Weidman’s title reign suddenly feels threatened.

For Weidman, a title defence over Machida would further solidify him as one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world. It would also validate him in the eyes of those critics who say he didn’t really beat Anderson Silva, but that Silva beat himself. So it’s clearly an important fight in career of “The All-American.”

For Machida, it’s a chance to make history, and become the only fighter in UFC history to hold the promotion’s light heavyweight and middleweight titles. If Machida wins the belt, he would deservedly jump into the list of potential Greatest Fighters of All-Time, and that’d be really saying something.

This is an amazing fight, and although I was intrigued by TRT Belfort vs. Weidman, I think this fight between Weidman and Machida is a dream matchup, and this one is going to be a real treat for the fans.

UFC 173

• Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida (UFC Middleweight Championship)

Click the stars to rate your anticipation for this fight.

Worst: Eddie Wineland vs. Johnny Eduardo, UFC Fight Night 40

My pick for the worst new fight announced is a bantamweight contest between Eddie Wineland and Johnny Eduardo, which takes place this May in Cincinnati at UFC Fight Night 40. Wineland is coming off a KO win over Yves Jabouin at UFC on FOX 10, while Eduardo last competed in May 2012 at UFC on FUEL TV 3, where he defeated Jeff Curran via decision.

I think this fight is yet another mismatch in Wineland’s favor, and for the life of me I can’t understand why the UFC matchmakers keep handing him easy paychecks. With all due respect to Eduardo, he is one of the oldest fighters in the division, andhasn’t fought in nearly two years. So why is he fighting Wineland, who is one of the most dangerous fighters in the division?

My feeling is the UFC is trying to build him back up for a second title run against champ Renan Barão, and perhaps try and sell the storyline of their first fight at UFC 165 being stopped controversially. In a division with few top contenders who have any sort of glimmer of hope of beating Barao, at least the promotion can market Wineland as competitive for the first round of their bout. But he needs to pick up a few wins first to get back up to the top of the 135-pound ladder. Hence the mismatches he’s being booked for.

Look for Wineland to put on another show this May against Eduardo’s head and body, and continue to march towards another bantamweight title shot.

UFC Fight Night 40
• Eddie Wineland vs. Johnny Eduardo