In a close, competitive fight Dennis Siver eeked out a win over Matt Wiman who can perhaps feel a little unfortunate not to have gotten the nod himself.
The first round was fairly even with Siver’s powerful hooks looking the most dangerous weapon on the feet, but more often than not were just missing their mark, while Wiman was relentlessly swooping for takedown attempts.
Siver did a good job of defending those attempts however, and even managed to surprise Wiman by successfully going for a takedown of his own though Wiman was quickly back to his feet.
Towards the end of the round Wiman finally got a solid takedown of his own but didn’t have enough time to do anything substantial with it.
In the second round Wiman was again pressing Siver up against the fence looking for a takedown, and again Siver was doing a good job of defending it.
In the end Wiman’s pressure paid off and he got Siver on his back. From there he began throwing some effective ground and pound, and opened up a big cut above Siver’s right eye with a slicing elbow strike.
Continuing to control from the top and rain down elbows and fists Wiman really began to go to town on Siver’s face, leaving him cut up and covered in blood by the end of the round.
Needless to say Siver wanted no part of the ground game in the final round and managed to stuff a couple of Wiman’s early attempts to take it there. Looking to catch the judges eyes Wiman then changed things up by grabbing ahold of a guillotine choke and dropping down to the mat with it, but Siver relatively easily managed to pop his head free and get back to his feet.
Persistance eventually paid off in the latter stages of the round for Wiman as he grabbed one of Siver’s legs and then swept his other out from under him to score a valuable takedown, though he was not able to keep the action there.
Siver then managed to stumble Wiman to the mat by catching him off-balance with a leg kick. Siver tried for a guillotine choke of his own but as Wiman looked to break free the bell sounded.
Overall it’s a very close fight, with only the second going definitively in the favor of Wiman, so it’s down to the judges and all three call it in favor of Siver by 29-28.
Wiman’s not happy and leaves the Octagon in disgust with his three fight winning streak at an end, while Siver extends his own run to four.
