First and Worst: Week of March 23 – March 29, 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: Tim Means vs. George Sullivan, UFC on FOX 15

My pick for the best new fight announced this past week is the welterweight bout at UFC on FOX 15 between Tim Means and George Sullivan. Means is filling in on short notice for an injured Kenny Robertson and will square off against Sullivan on the Fight Pass prelims at the fifteenth FOX event, which takes place April 18 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

This is a replacement fight, but I love it, even more than the original fight between Sullivan and Robertson. Like Robertson, Means is a solid veteran of the sport on a hot streak, and like Sullivan, he’s looking to pick up another win and break out of the pack at 170 pounds.

This is not just an important fight for Means and Sullivan; it’s the fight that will define their entire careers. For Means, he’s on a three-fight win streak, and his standup has looked dangerous as hell, but the knock on him is still is his wrestling, and Sullivan is a very solid grinder who is going to look to take Means down and beat him up on the ground.

As for Sullivan, he’s 2-0 in the UFC and coming off of a brutal knockout win over Igor Araujo, but he’s 34 years old, and time is running out for him to make a statement in his career. He absolutely needs to beat Means if he’s going to show he’s more than just a gatekeeper, but it’s not going to be an easy task at all based on how amazing Means looked in his last fight against Dhiego Lima.

I expect both Means and Sullivan to leave everything in the cage when they square off this April, and I’m expecting a fantastic fight. I’m not sure who wins, but regardless, this is good matchmaking and I’m very excited for this fight to take place.

UFC on Fox 15

• George Sullivan vs. Tim Means

Click the stars to rate your anticipation for this fight.

Worst: Alejandro Perez vs. Patrick Williams, UFC 188

My pick for the best new fight announced this past week is the bantamweight bout at UFC 188 between TUF: Latin America winner Alejandro Perez and Patrick Williams. The card takes place June 13 at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City, Mexico, and Perez vs. Williams will take place on the evening’s preliminary card.

I just don’t understand the matchmaking here. I’m not super high on Perez, just because I wasn’t impressed with the talent on TUF: Latin America in general, but he did win the show. So you’d think the UFC would at least give him a fight against someone coming off of a win, right?

Wrong. Instead of giving Perez a step up, UFC bookers are giving him a step down by matching him up with Williams, who is one of the worst fighters in the UFC bantamweight division. Williams, who hasn’t fought since UFC 172 last April, is 0-1 in the UFC and in his lone appearance was brutally knocked out by a flying knee courtesy of Chris Beal. And it’s not like Beal is some world beater, either — he’s an average fighter, and he brutally KO’d Williams. Not good.

I get that the UFC wants to protect Perez, and I understand that the promotion wants to build him up slowly, but giving him a guy who has only fought once in the Octagon and who was on the receiving end of a terrible knockout — not to mentionhas been out for a year — makes little sense to me. Even if Perez wins like he will be expected to, this isn’t a fight that will help him develop, and I just don’t see the point of it.

Maybe matchmaker Sean Shelby knows something about Williams that I don’t, but on paper this is a really terrible fight and I’m not looking forward to it whatsoever. Bad matchmaking here, as far as I’m concerned.