UFC 127 preview: George Sotiropoulos looks to please hometown crowd with win over Dennis Siver

This is the third fight preview of the “UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch” card that will take place this weekend in Sydney, Australia.

This match-up features two quickly rising talents in the UFC lightweight division where Australian native George Sotiropoulos will take on Dennis Siver.

This fight has significant implications in the division as Sotiropoulos is ‘in the mix’ of contenders according to UFC president Dana White.

Dennis Siver has quietly won five of his last six fights inside the UFC, with his only loss coming against TUF winner Ross Pearson.

Dennis Siver comes into this fight with a career record of (17-7) with 9 wins via submission and 5 via TKO/KO.  That equates to an 82% finishing percentage in his wins.  Siver has a kickboxing background and has sort of patented a spinning back kick that he often lands to the body of his opponents.

George Sotiropoulos comes into this fight with a career record of (14-2) with eight wins via submission and one KO to his credit.

One of his losses is actually a disqualification loss to Japanese standout lightweight Shinya Aoki.  Sotiropoulos is on an absolute tear riding an eight-fight winning streak, the last of which he finished TUF alum Joe Lauzon via submission in the second round at UFC 123.

Linesmaker has Sotiropoulos as the betting favorite at (-340) with Siver as the underdog at (+260).

The only thing that concerns me  is the sheer size of Siver as he’s a huge lightweight.  He may be able to rough Sotiropoulos up a bit on the inside, but Sotiropoulos should be able to keep him at bay with that stiff jab of his.  Sotiropoulos will have a small reach advantage as well.

I think Sotiropoulos’ stand-up is good enough to compete with Siver there.  Sotiropoulos will have the advantage on the ground as well, and may try to take it there if he doesn’t find success standing.

Four of Siver’s seven losses have come via submission, and it appears that he has been susceptible to arm-bars and kimura’s in the past.  Those are two submissions that Sotiropoulos has ended fights with on multiple occasions.

I like Sotiropoulos in this fight, but Siver could possibly do some damage while it’s standing.  The fight does start standing, so he’s got a shot.  However, I think Sotiropoulos will ultimately submit him or win a decision by out-pointing a fading Siver as the fight goes on.

Check out our previous UFC 127 previews:

• Kyle Noke vs. Chris Camozzi
• Chris Lytle vs. Brian Ebersole