The first televised fight on the PPV broadcast at UFC 132 will be a lightweight fight between Matt Wiman and Dennis Siver. Both fighters are riding three fight winning streaks with the winner looking to assert himself in the top tier of the division.
Matt Wiman comes into this fight with an overall record of (13-5) with 4 wins via submisson and 4 wins via TKO/KO. Wiman is a TUF 5 alum with good power in his striking and solid wrestling. He’s only been finished once in his career and that was in his UFC debut at UFC 60 where Spencer Fisher landed a spectacular flying knee to put him away. Wiman pushed a furious pace to outwork Cole Miller in his last outing at UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 back in January.
Dennis Siver comes into this fight with an overall record of (18-7) with 9 wins via submission and 5 wins via TKO/KO. Siver is a huge lightweight with good kickboxing skills and a solid ground game. However, he has been submitted 4 out of his 7 career losses. Siver was last seen in action against George Sotiropoulos at UFC 127 where he used outstanding takedown defense to keep the fight standing and punish the Australian to win a unanimous decision.
There are some interesting components going into this fight. Will Wiman be able to make Siver fight at feverish pace and will that pace make the larger kickboxer wilt as the fight goes on? Can Wiman take Siver down if he wants? Can Wiman find success standing against Siver?
I think Wiman matches up better with Siver than Sotiropoulos did as he physically stronger and has better wresting. There are three things Wiman must do if he’s to win the fight. He needs to push the pace at all cost, keep Siver at a close distance when striking, get the takedown when it presents itself. Siver always seems to fade the longer the fight goes so an initial high pace from Wiman would help him later in the fight. It would open up the takedown and keeping his distance close to Siver would not allow Siver to find his range with his patented spinning back kick or lunging left hook that he hit Sotiropoulos with. Also, fighting inside would allow Wiman to possibly take Siver down where Siver isn’t quite as dangerous. If he’s not able to establish the inside game, he should fire the jab as Sotiropoulus had good success with it against Siver.
Siver is a kickboxer first and foremost so his first two objectives would be to establish his range and stop the takedown just as he did against Sotiropoulos. He may want to limit his kicks as Wiman is a better wrestler than Sotiropoulos and could possibly catch one and take him down. Siver may want to do something unexpected and put Wiman on his back just to keep Wiman honest. He should not allow Wiman to clinch with him, simply disengage and establish his range again. If taken down he needs to work to get right back up to his feet and not play the guard game with Wiman who’s never been submitted in MMA.
I want to pick Wiman in this fight. I think he has to tools to give Siver problems, but I think Siver’s confidence is at an all time high and he does enough to get the decision win.
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