Dennis Siver (Dave Mandel/Sherdog)UFC Fight Night 69: Dennis Siver is Fighting for his Career Michael Davis June 18, 2015 Spotlight It’s hard to believe, but Dennis Siver has been fighting in the UFC for eight years. He has proven himself to be a great fighter in one of the toughest divisions, but it seems like he is being left behind by father time. As younger fighters are emerging into stars, he seems to stay in the same place. A fighter can get by on being a gate keeper for a long time. Just look at the career of Gleison Tibau as a point of reference. Recently though, Siver has been on a decline. Over the last three years Siver has lost two fights, won three and had one no contest. That doesn’t look great on paper, but it doesn’t look terrible either. Upon deeper review there is only one fighter that he has defeated in the last three years that is still in the UFC, and that is Charles Rosa. Rosa just lost his second out of his last three fights, and may be in hot water himself. While Siver was used as a gatekeeper with Conor McGregor, that fight is looking more and more like it was a easy way to keep McGregor busy. A true gatekeeper is someone that if a fighter can get past, they deserve to be considered a contender. Siver isn’t that, at least he isn’t anymore. It’s starting to look like Siver is a different kind of gatekeeper. He isn’t guarding the gates to contender spots, he is guarding the exit door. While guarding that door he remains very close to it himself, and sooner or later he will find himself on the other side of it. Siver’s next fight is Saturday night against Tatsuya Kawajiri. Kawajiri is well known by the hardcore fans, but he carries little name value. While Kawajiri has fifteen years of pro experience in the biggest organizations outside of the UFC, he himself is on the back end of his career. At 37 years of age, Joe Silva and Sean Shelby are only going to be looking at Kawajiri’s performances in the UFC when rating his stock. At this point, he is a .500 fighter with a win over Sean Soriano and a loss to Clay Guida. If Kawajiri is able to beat Siver, there’s a good chance that Siver is handed his walking papers along with his show money.
