Kelly Kobold Injured, Sarah D'Alelio Steps In Against Vanessa Porto At Invicta FC 2

Submission specialist Sarah D’Alelio (5-2) will replace injured Kelly Kobold in a bantamweight matchup against Vanessa Porto (14-4) on the main card of Invicta FC 2: Baszler vs. McMann 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, promotion representatives confirmed to CageReligion.com on Monday.


“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.”


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.”


Invicta FC 2 takes place on July 28 at Kansas City's Memorial Hall. 


In the bantamweight main event, 2004 Olympic Wrestling Silver Medalist Sara McMann (5-0) will meet battle-tested submission wizard Shayna Baszler (14-6).


In the co-main event, Hitomi Akano (18-9) will square off with Japanese Jiu-Jitsu black belt and Cesar Gracie-protégé Alexis Davis (11-5) in a bantamweight tilt.