The UFC has granted Sam Alvey his wish and have given him the opponent he asked for for this next fight. Following the American’s recent KO win over Cezar Ferreira at UFC Fight Night 61, which was Alvey’s second KO in a row in the Octagon, “Smile’N” called out Australian judoka standout Dan Kelly for a middleweight matchup, and the UFC has decided to give him the opponent he asked for, as the two 185lbers will meet at UFC Fight Night 65, which takes place May 10 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre in Adelaide, Australia. It’s not clear yet if the bout will be on the main card or the prelims, but since the card is on Fight Pass it likely doesn’t matter either way. Personally, I don’t understand why Alvey called Kelly out. I know Kelly is 2-0 in the UFC with wins over Patrick Walsh and Luke Zachrich, and I know he’s undefeated, but I’m still surprised he was on Alvey’s radar. Although Alvey dropped his UFC debut to Tom Watson via decision, he’s bounced back admirably with two brutal knockout wins over Dylan Andrews and Ferreira in his next two fights. With the back-to-back knockout wins in his back pocket, I really thought that Alvey would set his sights a bit higher up the middleweight ladder if he was planning on calling somebody out, not call out a guy like Kelly who, let’s be honest, is a middle-of-the-pack middleweight, at best. I figured Alvey’s win over Ferreira would net him some sort of name opponent, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. My guessing is that Alvey views Kelly as a winnable fight for him, and it’s really hard to argue it. Although Kelly has an awesome ground game, his striking is pretty ineffective in general and at his age it’s likely his chin isn’t going to be able to take too much punishment without him going out, and we all know how hard Alvey hits. So perhaps Alvey figures this is a good way to get a nice payday, while for Kelly this is a great fight for him because if he wins, it raises his stock big time in the middleweight division. As for the line, you can tell already that I like Alvey here and I certainly do. I believe he’s going to win this fight, and probably by knockout once again. Look for Alvey to be at least a 2-to-1 favorite here as he looks to add another knockout to his resume and hopefully once he does that, call out a bigger-name opponent for his next matchup.
