Just about two weeks ago, German fighter Dennis ‘The Menace’ Siver (19-8) had been named as an opponent for TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson for the upcoming UFC on FUEL TV 2 event.
Pearson’s camp denied the bout, and now it seems that Siver will reportedly meet Brazilian featherweight Diego Nunes (17-2) at the upcoming Swedish event.
News was first reported by MMAnytt.se, the same Swedish site that originally reported the Siver vs. Pearson match, and has since been confirmed by MMAjunkie.com on Tuesday.
UFC on Fuel TV: Nogueira vs. Gustafsson (aka UFC on Fuel TV 2) is the Ultimate Fighting Championships first visit to Sweden and is expected to take place on April 14, 2012 at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm. Headlining will be a light heavyweight bout between native fighter Alexander Gustafsson and Brazilian Antônio Rogério Nogueira.
This will be Siver’s debut bout in the UFC at 145-lbs, having gone 8-5 in the Octagon as a lightweight. The German based fighter had a four fight win streak stopped last October by Donald Cerrone at UFC 137, losing by first round rear-naked choke submission.
Nunes responded with a win in his last bout following a decision defeat at the hands of Kenny Florian last June at UFC 131. This past December Nunes took on Manvel Gamburyan at UFC 141, which was a rescheduled bout between the two which had previously been set for UFC 135 in September. Nunes would earn two of the three rounds in an exciting fight earning scores of 29-28 across the board.
Nunes is considered one of the rising featherweights of the division, so I feel that Siver has his hands full in this fight. Unless ‘The Menace’ can pull out one of his famous spinning back kicks I see Nunes winning by decision in this one.