FanHouse Dennis Siver

Ever since the UFC announced that they were holding their first-ever event in Germany earlier this year, the local media has tried to do everything in its power to throw road blocks in their way.

In March, Dana White held a press conference in Cologne, Germany, site of UFC 99 on June 13, to officially announce the event, and mentioned on a video blog that the press was very negative towards MMA. And last week, the UFC was forced to ban anyone under the age of 18 from attending the event after a popular German newspaper called the sport "brutal cage fighting" and receiving pressure from a local child protection commission.

FanHouse spoke to German-born fighter Dennis Siver, who is competing on the card against Dale Hartt, through translator Oliver Copp about the backlash against MMA in his home country. The full interview is below.

After the 1996 Olympics, Dan Henderson was a world-class athlete looking for a way to make a living. He had just competed in Greco-Roman wrestling in Atlanta, and he knew he wasn't ready to retire as an athlete at age 26, but he also knew there was no professional Greco-Roman wrestling circuit.

So he decided to take a shot at mixed martial arts, a sport so obscure that when he told people he was doing it, most didn't know what it was. Even those who had heard of it were only vaguely aware of what it was; some people called it Ultimate Fighting, some called it vale tudo, some called it no holds barred, and some called it savagery unfit for an Olympian.

But Henderson entered the Brazil Open in 1997, and that began an MMA career that has seen him fight professionally on four continents, and an MMA career that continued on Saturday with his victory over Rich Franklin in the main event at UFC 93.