Kickboxing specialist and former top 10 lightweight Dennis Siver made his featherweight debut against Diego Nunes in Sweden. In a closely-contested fight, Siver took home a unanimous decision victory over the Brazilian.
Siver’s performance leaves something to be desired from the German-Russian fighter.
As evidenced by the fact that he weighed in over the 146-pound limit initially, dropping the additional 10 pounds was a tougher endeavor than he had anticipated. Although he did not show significant cardio issues during the bout, his output was slower than past Octagon appearances.
After defeating Nunes, many are throwing Siver’s name into the featherweight title picture. However, that’s a bit hasty—even in a division void of legitimate challengers.
While the decision victory was not controversial, an argument could be made that Nunes was equally deserving of the nod on the judges’ scorecards.
Couple that with the fact that Siver was dominated by Donald Cerrone in his last outing at lightweight and was on the receiving end of a questionable decision over Matt Wiman before that, and Siver is anything but a contender.
Many will point to his 8-2 record over his last 10 fights, but his last three performances reveal a fighter that would be demolished by current 145-pound kingpin Jose Aldo.
Siver was able to withstand the striking attack of Nunes—who has only five finishes by strikes in 20 fights—but against a fighter like Aldo, Siver would be overwhelmed in much the same manner he was by Cerrone in his last outing at 155.
There’s no doubt that the UFC needs depth in the featherweight division and the veteran Siver provides that. In fact, the win over Nunes certainly puts him in the top 10, but until he strings together a few more wins in his new weight class, he’s nowhere near ready for Aldo.
Rob Tatum is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. You can also find Rob’s work at The MMA Corner. For anything related to MMA, follow him on Twitter.
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