First and Worst: Week of January 12 – January 18, 2015

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: Quinton Jackson vs. Fabio Maldonado, UFC 186

My pick for the best new fight announced this past week is the upcoming light heavyweight bout at UFC 186 between Quinton Jackson and Fabio Maldonado. The event is scheduled for April 25 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Jackson vs. Maldonado is scheduled to be a part of the night’s main pay-per-view card.

This is a phenomenal stylistic matchup and could end up stealing the Fight of the Night award at UFC 186. Jackson is making his return to the UFC after a solid 3-0 stint in Bellator and will no doubt be looking for a statement victory in his Octagon return bout. Jackson looked really good in Bellator overall, knocking out Christian M’Pumbu and Joey Beltran, and winning a decision over King Mo at Bellator 120, and I’m excited to see him back in the UFC. He always complained that the UFC matchmakers gave him wrestlers, but they are giving him a striker in Maldonado in this return fight, and I’m expecting an exciting matchup.

Maldonado is actually riding a four-fight win streak at light heavyweight, and is coming off of a TKO win over Hans Stringer at UFC 179. One of the toughest fighters in all of MMA, Maldonado is a guy who will stand in the center of the cage and bang it out with Rampage. He has an iron chin and technical boxing that lacks power, so this is a really good matchup for Rampage to get back on track with, and since Maldonado is ranked in the top 15 of the UFC Rankings at light heavyweight, it’s an opportunity for Jackson to get some sponsorship cash, since he will become ranked with a victory.

This is a tremendous fight on paper, and I’m crossing my fingers that Bellator, who is claiming contractual rights to Jackson, doesn’t find a way to stop it from happening. It’s a great fight for the fans, and it’s a bout that makes UFC 186 look that much better on paper.

UFC 186

• Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Fabio Maldonado

Click the stars to rate your anticipation for this fight.

Worst: Eddie Gordon vs. Chris Dempsey, UFC on FOX 15

My pick for the worst new fight announced this past week is the upcoming middleweight bout at UFC on FOX 15 between Eddie Gordon and Chris Dempsey. The card takes place April 18 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and Gordon vs. Dempsey will surely be on the preliminary card.

This is just not a very good fight. Gordon, the TUF 19 middleweight winner, recently suffered his second career defeat and his first defeat by knockout when he was head kicked in brutal fashion by Josh Samman at UFC 181. Gordon was winning the fight up until the point of the knockout with his wrestling, but it wasn’t effective wrestling. It was lay and pray, and no one wants to watch that. But Gordon paid dearly for his dreadful game plan when he took a head kick late in the second round.

As for Dempsey, this is his second fight in the UFC, with his first coming last summer when he was brutally knocked out by Ilir Latifi at UFC Fight Night 46. Yes, he did take that fight on short notice, but getting destroyed the way he did by a guy like Latifi, who is not known for knocking his opponents out, is not a good sign, and I really think Dempsey’s career in the UFC is going to be short (and not so sweet). I mean, this is a guy who didn’t exactly light the world on fire on the regional circuit. I just don’t think he’s UFC caliber, and I think this may be his last UFC fight.

To me, this fight was designed to get Gordon a win and get his hype train back rolling. I’m still not exactly sure why the UFC matched him up with Samman in his last matchup, since that was a tough fight stylistically, but I guess they must have figured that with Samman’s long layoff, Gordon could get a quality win over a solid name. And obviously that backfired, so it’s back to the drawing board, and the UFC is expecting Gordon to knock out or beat Dempsey in impressive fashion so he can continue his progression up the middleweight ladder. And it won’t surprise me at all when that happens.