First and Worst: Week of June 23 – June 29, 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: Tyron Woodley vs. Dong Hyun Kim, UFC Fight Night 48

My pick for the best new fight announced this past week is the upcoming welterweight bout between Tyron Woodley and Dong Hyun Kim, which will serve as the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 48, scheduled for August 23 at CotaiArena in Macau, China. The fight became possible after Hector Lombard became injured and was removed from his fight against Kim, which led to the UFC calling on Lombard’s teammate Woodley to fill the slot.

Although I liked Lombard vs. Kim a lot, I’m also very intrigued by this matchup between Woodley and Kim, and I think it’s just as good of a fight, if not better. Woodley may be coming off a very disappointing loss to Rory MacDonald, but I still truly believe in him as a top contender, and believe he could bounce back in impressive fashion against the talented yet wild Kim.

As for Kim, he’s looked absolutely amazing in the last two years, and if he can beat Woodley in impressive fashion, he will be very, very close to getting a title shot himself. Although he is a talented judo player with a smothering top game, Kim’s standup has really improved in recent years, and he could possibly be a bad matchup for Woodley, as long as he keeps his chin tucked.

I think this is a fantastic, intriguing matchup between two stud 170-pounders, and I can’t wait to see it go down this summer.

UFC Fight Night 48

• Dong Hyun Kim vs. Tyron Woodley

Click the stars to rate your anticipation for this fight.

Worst: Ernest Chavez vs. Mirsad Bektic, UFC Fight Night 49

My pick for the worst new fight announced this past week is the upcoming featherweight fight between Ernest Chavez and Mirsad Bektic, which takes place at UFC Fight Night 49 on August 23 at BOK Center in Tulsa, OK. The fight will mark Chavez’ featherweight debut, while for Bektic it will be his second fight in the UFC after a successful debut earlier this year.

I think Bektic is one of the top 145-pound prospects in the UFC right now, and I don’t understand why the UFC decided to throw Chavez to the wolves in this one. He’s 1-1 in the UFC so far, but it’s clear that he’s just an average fighter, and he should be fighting other fighters of a similar ilk, not someone like Bektic, who could be contending for the title one day.

I really think that UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby is great at his job, but pitting a top prospect against a fighter who is coming off a loss just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know what Chavez did to the UFC matchmakers to keep getting booked against top prospects, but for some reason he does, and unless he looks amazing at 145 lbs, he will lose this fight.

Hopefully the UFC doesn’t cut Chavez after this one if he loses, because it would be pretty unfair if that happened. That being said, they just don’t seem to like this guy that much, even though he’s a decent little grinder, so it wouldn’t shock me to see him get finished by Bektic and then shown the door, despite how unfair it would be.