With UFC 123 Win, George Sotiropoulos Draws Dennis Siver in Sydney

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – It didn't take long at all for George Sotiropoulos to start thinking about his next fight.

Just a few hours after submitting Joe Lauzon to open the pay-per-view portion of UFC 123 on Saturday, and only minutes after learning he had an $80,000 Fight of the Night bonus to go along with his win, Sotiropoulos' boss, UFC president Dana White, announced his next opponent.



Sotiropoulos, as expected, will be on the UFC 127 card in his native Australia, and he will face Dennis Siver. White made the announcement at the UFC 123 post-fight press conference at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Sotiropoulos' win over Lauzon at the event was his seventh straight in the UFC and eighth straight since losing to Shinya Aoki by disqualification four years ago.

Already in the lightweight title mix thanks to wins over Kurt Pellegrino and Joe Stevenson earlier this year, the win over Lauzon cemented him in the upper echelon of the division. A win over Siver could put him in line to fight for the title in 2011.

Siver (17-7, 6-4 UFC) has won two straight since a loss to Ross Pearson in March. He beat Spencer Fisher in June and just last week submitted Andre Winner at UFC 122 in Germany, which earned him a Submission of the Night bonus. Siver has won fight night bonuses in four of his last six bouts.