Another USA vs. Brazil matchup has been added to this summer’s UFC 175 event. According to Globo, Kenny Robertson will fill in for an injured Santiago Ponzinibbio and take on Ildemar Alcantara in a welterweight bout at UFC 175, which takes place July 5 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV. So far, this is the seventh matchup set for UFC 175 which features an American vs. a Brazilian, with of course the most notable bout of the bunch being the headliner between UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and top contender Lyoto Machida. Robertson was originally supposed to fight Zak Cummings at UFC Fight Night 45 but was scratched from that card when Cummings was moved to fight Gunnar Nelson at UFC Dublin, and so it made a lot of sense for him to fight Alcantara at UFC 175 once Ponzinibbio pulled out with injury. I actually really like this matchup between Robertson and Alcantara and think it’s a much better matchup than the original one between Ponzinibbio and Alcantara, a fight which never really made much sense to me considering Ponzinibbio was coming off a loss to Ryan LaFlare while Alcantara recently defeated Albert Tumenov via split decision in an upset. However, with Robertson coming off a victory over Thiago Perpetuo, I think this fight against Alcantara makes much more sense and it will help flesh out the middle of the welterweight division more. As far as how this fight goes, it’s actually really intriguing to me. Alcantara does his best work on the ground for sure, but Robertson is one of the slickest submission fighters at 170lbs and so if the fight does hit the match I think the woodshop teacher from the midwest has the advantage. If the fight stays standing, I’d have to slightly give the edge to Alcantara because of his huge reach, but he’s a guy who leaves his chin up in the air to be punished and Robertson is a guy with sneaky power on the feet and he could very well catch Alcantara and put him out if he’s not careful. As far as the line for this fight goes, I think it’s going to very close and I wouldn’t doubt if it’s near a Pick ’em. However, I do give Robertson a slight edge overall due to his grappling prowess and, gun to head, I’d take the American in this one. But it should be a pretty competitive matchup and I’m looking forward to it.
