I half-agree. You obviously have a much higher opinion of Natal than I did. Acknowledging the limitations of Fight Matrix rankings, Natal was the #30 MW when Anders beat him. Herman was #42 when he beat Natal. Camozzi was #35 when he took Natal to a split decision, and Hall was #29 when he did the same. Bump those up around 10 to exclude guys not in the UFC, and you have a decent approximation of what their UFC rankings should have been. Anders should be fighting a fringe top-15 guy, not fringe top-10, which is a big difference in a weight class that drops off as quickly as MW does.
That's the part I disagree with, but I also think Machida is, at best, a fringe top-15 guy. UFC has him at 14, not including the champion. Fight Matrix has him at #36, lower than Anders. Yeah, it's true that the guys Machida has lost to would mop the floor with the guys Anders has beat, but Machida will be winless for over 3 years when this fight takes place, with a style that tends to age poorly. Competitively, the fight makes sense. From a business standpoint, they're obviously hoping to either get Machida an impressive win to rebuild his stock or capitalize on his name value to build a guy with more long-term value. That makes sense too. The only puzzling thing about the fight is that it's somehow a main event. I love Machida as much as the next guy, but a guy who hasn't won in over 3 years against a guy who has never won against anyone relevant period is not a main event, even for a small UFC show.
