File picture of Conor McGregor entering the octagon ready for a featherweight fight against Dustin Poirier at MGM Grand Garden Arena. (below) Dennis Siver, the first German in the main event of an UFC card.

 

DPA/Washington/Boston


Martial arts fighter Dennis Siver is the first German in the main event of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) card, but finds himself in the shadow of a brash Irish opponent who vows to deliver a knockout within two minutes.
Some sports bookies list Conor McGregor as a 10-to-1 favourite for tomorrow’s UFC Fight Night in Boston.
The promotion of the match has been similarly one-sided, with a 30-second television spot from the UFC - the domination promotion in mixed martial arts (MMA) - showing Siver for barely one second, while McGregor compares himself to ancient Irish warriors and vows to “obliterate” the featherweight division.
A victory over the Siver, who stands 10th in the UFC’s contender rankings, is expected to bring McGregor a title shot against Brazilian champion Jose Aldo, who has ruled the 145-pound (65-kilogram) since 2009, already dispatching nine challengers.
McGregor has talked openly of UFC plans to hold the title fight in a football stadium in Ireland, where he has galvanised interest in the fast-growing combat sport.
Google data shows McGregor, 26, was the most-searched sportsperson of 2014 in his home country. With a record of 11-2 in his seven-year career, McGregor is 4-0 with three first-round technical knockouts since joining the UFC in 2013.
Siberia-born Siver has lived and trained in Mannheim, Germany, since moving with his ethnic-German family from Omsk, Russia, at age 17.
He is indifferent to being perceived as a sacrificial lamb for the fifth-ranked McGregor, whom Siver calls “inferior everywhere” to him in MMA’s key aspects: striking, positional wrestling and submissions.
“This fight will bring us a little more attention,” Siver told dpa.  “Particularly when I win, I do think it will advance our entire MMA scene here in Germany a little bit. ... Unfortunately, it won’t be on television in Germany.”
UFC fights were shown on German cable television from 2009-10, until the Bavarian state authority for new media ruled that the sport was too brutal, citing MMA rules that allow punches to continue on the ground. After a long legal fight, news came last week that a German appeals court had overturned the ban.
There was no immediate indication that a broadcast partner would be found in time for the Siver-McGregor bout to be seen in Germany, except through the UFC’s website.
Incorporating martial arts from around the world, modern MMA is a free-flowing blend of boxing and kick boxing with Olympic and folk wrestling, judo and Brazilian jiujitsu chokes and joint locks.
Siver, 35, took his first pro MMA fight in 2004, forging a career record of 22-9 with one no contest. In 2007 he became the first German in the UFC, where he has built mark of 11-6 with one no contest.
Fellow German featherweight Alan Omer has trained with Siver, and was once booked in 2010 to fight McGregor in a smaller European promotion, though the match fell through. He called McGregor an “overrated” fighter who has used “psychological warfare” to anger or intimidate opponents.
“With Dennis I think that will be different, because Dennis is ice cold, a dog,” Omer said.
Still, he gives McGregor credit for advancing MMA in Ireland - a country with deep combat sport traditions - to a level that the Stuttgart-based Omer thinks is unlikely in Germany.
“In Germany, most people are pacifists and reject violence, which naturally makes it harder for a fighter to make such a meteoric rise,” said Omer, an Iraqi-born Kurd.
Compared to his Irish opponent, the unflappable Siver is soft-spoken and reserved, with a business-like approach to the fight game - the “anti-McGregor,” Omer said.
Potsdam-based Tim Leidecker, a fixture on the European MMA circuit who manages a large stable of German, Polish and Scandinavian fighters including several in the UFC, contrasted McGregor’s “X-factor” with Siver’s steady, reliable work ethic.
“Dennis is truly an incredibly consistent performer, someone who is almost robot-like in delivering in the cage,” Leidecker said. “You can really set your watch by it. That guy will bring it.”