The UFC Fight Night 59 card scheduled for Boston, Massachusetts on January 18th, 2015 will be headlined by the Featherweight bout between Ireland’s Conor McGregor and Germany’s Denis Siver. The first lines have popped up at the books, and as expected McGregor is a huge (-1000) favorite over Siver, who returns (+650). In what will be a five round fight, the over/under is set at 1.5 rounds, with the over paying (+110) and the under at (-140).
McGregor has run his record to (16-2) overall and (4-0) in the UFC. People make light of his level of competition, but his list of UFC opponents is not without some talent. Dustin Poirier was supposed to have represented a challenge for McGregor in his last outing, but McGregor aced the test. Now it falls to Siver to stop the momentum of McGregor. McGregor is likely to vault directly into a title shot against champion Jose Aldo with a win here, and McGregor is not shy about telling you that his goal is a showdown with Aldo next.
Siver has gone (3-1-1) since dropping down to Featherweight and he is a true UFC veteran with a clip of 12 wins and six losses. What makes Siver a different fight for McGregor is that the stocky German has the capacity to take the fight to the ground. Though Poirier is likely a fighter with a higher ceiling than Siver, Poirier chose to engage McGregor in a stand up exchange, which is really what McGregor wants. Siver is unlikely to give McGregor a chance to throw, he will want to get it on the floor and be chest to chest with McDonald as soon as possible. Any other type of fight does not benefit the German, who will be giving up height, reach and power advantages to McGregor in the stand-up.
If Siver experiences any kind of success with his wrestling, you can just see divisional top dogs Frankie Edgar and Chad Mendes begging for a shot at McGregor, as both wrestlers are a much higher level than Siver. If McGregor can win and win big, he will almost certainly by Jose Aldo’s next opponent.
Here is the UFC’s 30 second promo for the Boston Fight Night show and this fight in particular. See for yourself, this is the one where Siver got approximately two seconds on the promo:
