First and Worst: Week of March 3 – March 9, 2013

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: Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva, UFC Fight Night 40

My pick for the best fight announced this past week is the upcoming welterweight matchup at UFC Fight Night 40 between top-10-ranked Matt Brown and Brazilian phenom Erick Silva. This is a fight between two of the most dangerous 170-pounders in the world of MMA, and as a fight fan I cannot wait to see what happens when these two step in the cage with one another this May.

Both Brown and Silva are finishers who enter the Octagon with one goal: to destroy their opponents and make them submit to them, either with a tapout or a knockout. So to pair them up against one another and see what kind of fireworks they can produce, it’s already got me sweating. I can’t wait.

Brown and Silva are both on the verge of breaking out in the wide-open UFC welterweight division, and the winner of this fight will be in prime position to contend for the title in 2014. That’s why I expect both of them to leave absolutely everything they have in the cage this spring, and why I expect the fans to be very, very happy at the conclusion of this fight.

There are a lot of fights I’m eager to see this year, but Brown vs. Silva is at the top of the list. An amazing matchup booked by the UFC matchmakers, and I absolutely am excited as heck to see what kind of show these two can put on for the fans when they fight one another in Cincinnati.

UFC Fight Night 40

• Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva

Click the stars to rate your anticipation for this fight.

Worst: Danny Castillo vs. Charlie Brenneman, UFC 172

My pick for the worst new fight announced this past week is the upcoming lightweight bout between Charlie Brenneman and Danny Castillo, which will be a part of the UFC 172 preliminary card. Castillo was originally booked to face Isaac Vallie-Flagg, but the UFC decided to switch the matchup, and instead booked Vallie-Flagg against Takanori Gomi and Castillo against Brenneman.

I was already thinking UFC matchmaker Joe Silva read my articles on MMARatings based on some of the matchups he’s made in the past, but now I’m convinced, as it was just a few weeks ago where I wrote the Castillo vs. Vallie-Flagg fight was a waste and that the UFC should have given Castillo a better opponent.

I got half of that right, as the UFC obviously had second thoughts about the poor Castillo vs. Vallie-Flagg matchup, but for some reason they decided instead to make an even worse fight between Castillo and Brenneman. This fight really doesn’t make any sense to me, and I think the UFC wasted an opportunity here to get Castillo a step up.

I know that technically “Last Call” lost a majority decision to Edson Barboza in his last outing, but everyone except for two judges in California know that fight should have been scored a draw. Regardless of the scorecard, it was Castillo’s best performance in the Octagon, and he should have gotten a step up in competition. You know, someone like Gomi.

Instead, the UFC messed up. They should have booked Castillo vs. Gomi and Brenneman vs. Vallie-Flagg. Those fights make way more sense, and as a fan I’d be more excited about those matchups, not the two the UFC decided to book instead.

I would love to know why Silva didn’t get Castillo the opponent he deserves, but for now I’ll just write about my disdain for this matchup against Brenneman, one I expect to be the definition of a grind, and not one the fans will want to watch.