Invicta FC: Sarah D'Alelio Replaces Injured Kelly Kobold; Will Face Superstar Vanessa Porto July 28
Submission specialist Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio (5-2) of San Jose, Calif. will replace injured Kelly Kobold in a bantamweight (135 pound) matchup against streaking superstar Vanessa Porto (14-4) of Sao Paulo, Brazil on the main card at the Invicta FC 2: Baszler vs. McMann all-women’s professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan. on Sat., July 28.
Kobold was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a shoulder injury sustained during a routine training session.
“Vanessa’s really tough, really strong, really aggressive and good on the ground, but I’m all of those things too,” said D’Alelio, analyzing the matchup with Porto. “This is a great fight and I think it’s going to be a serious battle. If I win, it will put me in top contender status.”
Both the 31-year-old D’Alelio and the 28-year-old Porto have shown their ability to dominate opponents on the ground. Porto holds a black belt in the submission grappling discipline of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu while D’Aelio holds a lower rank of blue belt. D’Alelio doesn’t feel Porto’s greater skill and experience level in one fighting art will be a deciding factor in the fight, though.
“Things like that don’t matter when there are punches involved,” D’Alelio said.
D’Alelio made an impressive appearance at the inaugural Invicta FC event on April 28, dominating and eventually stopping Vanessa Mariscal with a barrage of punches that prompted Mariscal to verbally submit. The win snapped D’Alelio’s two-fight losing streak
Porto will enter the Invicta FC cage looking for her fifth consecutive victory. In her last effort on March 10, she scored a 41 second KO on Luana Teixeira with a single punch in a matchup in Brazil.
Porto, who hasn’t been pushed past the second round by any of her last four opponents and finished three of them inside the first stanza, doesn’t look at D’Alelio as any different from her previous adversaries.
“It’s just one more opponent. I’m here to fight and do not choose whom I fight,” said Porto. “I will fight anybody in the world at 135 pounds.”
Porto earned her black belt under her husband and first trainer Pedro Iglesias, who will serve as one of her cornermen against D’Alelio on July 28. She began training with Iglesias in 2004.
