Siver Pulls Off An Upset
Built like a castle/rook chess piece, and only slightly taller, Dennis Siver defied the odds-makers and arm-chair pundits by defeating the home-town hero George Sotiropoulos.
Siver nearly knocked G-Sot out in the first round with a powerful left hook and several other shots, but Sotiropoulos hung on gamely, and survived the round badly shaken and battered. Siver easily stuffed G-Sot’s inept takedown attempts. Joe Rogan made a telling and accurate comment upon the weakness of many BJJ fighters–takedowns.
No matter how good your ground game is, it is useless unless you can take your opponent down. G-Sot grabbed Siver’s leg a number of times, but he never drove in with power (like a wrestler), turning to put his opponent down–instead, at one point, he held Siver’s leg at head height as Siver agilely bounced backwards on one foot, avoiding the takedown.
The next two rounds, like the first, were essentially a kick-boxing match, at which the German kick-boxing champ Siver was in his element. While G-Sot came back with a credible performance, getting some decent shots for the balance of the fight, so did Siver get his own shots in, making the first round crucial.
G-Sot just could not get the fight to the ground, and Siver stuffed every takedown attempt and literally threw his opponent to the canvas, clearly demonstrating his compact power. G-Sot persisted in his takedown attempts, which became feebler and half-hearted as the fight progressed.
Siver revealed the gaping hole in the much- hyped Sotiropoulos’ game–if you stuff G-Sot’s takedown–he is relatively toothless. G-Sot’s takedowns were poor and should be his primary focus along with his stand-up as he begins the long climb back up the ladder.
Siver has grown in his past few fights–as evidenced by his excellent takedown defense. He also has excellent conditioning, keeping up with a very fast-paced fight With this win, he will move up the ladder in the heavily stacked LW division. He still has a few fights to go to see a title shot, but he has earned a chance against some top ten fighters with tonight’s performance.
