This Saturday Night: Brad Pickett vs Eddie Wineland

Brad Pickett and Eddie Wineland are gunslingers. Pickett can end a fight with one great uppercut or a nasty submission. Wineland can end it with a brutal right cross or a body shot. They also happen to be two of the best fighters in the UFC bantamweight division.

Eddie Wineland was the first WEC bantamweight champion, but lost that title to Chase Beebe in one of the best fights of the early Zuffa WEC days. Since that lost, he’s slowly improved, his defensive wrestling has been his most impressive improvement. Most memorable, he  made Faber struggle in a competitive fight that he lost back in March 2011. While he lost to Benavidez in August 2011, Wineland came back strong to KO the higher ranked Scott Jorgensen in a “Fight of the Night” showdown in June 2012. He has come a long way since he was easily tapped out by Rani Yahya in the Spring of 2009.

Brad Pickett has had a thrilling career in the WEC and UFC. It wasn’t too long ago that he manhandled Demetrious Johnson at the “Aldo vs Faber PPV” on April 2010. Every fight starting with that one has been fantastic. Against Jorgensen? Great fight. Against Menjivar? Another great, competitive fight. Against Renan Barao? Sure he got finished in horrifying fashion, but one of the best rounds of the year. Then his finishes of Damacio Page and Yves Jabouin were the sort of endings that us violent craving MMA fans desire.

This is a fight that could have been a great WEC co-headliner. Now it’s in the prelims on FX, but don’t let that fool you. It’s not a throwaway fight, it’s a fight that means a lot within it’s division and it’s a fight that is guaranteed to provide high drama and fury.