Ponzinibbio out, Kenny Robertson now meets Ildemar Alcantara at UFC 175

An injury has caused a change to the UFC 175 preliminary card a month before the event.

Santiago Ponzinibbio (18-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) has been injured and is out of his welterweight bout against Ildemar Alcantara (20-6 MMA, 3-1 UFC). The Argentinian will be replaced by American Kenny Robertson (13-3 MMA, 2-3 UFC) against the Brazilian.

Brazilian news outlet Combate recently reported the change, and MMAjunkie confirmed the new booking with Alcantara. The UFC has yet to make an announcement of the switch.

Featuring a middleweight title fight between current champ Chris Weidman and former light heavyweight title holder Lyoto Machida, UFC 175 takes place July 5 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center. The evening’s main card airs on pay-per-view, while prelims air on FOX Sports 1 and stream on UFC Fight Pass.

Robertson has alternated wins and losses since debuting in the UFC in 2011 after starting his career 10-0. The wrestler from Eastern Illinois University, the same program that produced UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes, will be looking for his first winning streak since before his UFC career started. When he has won, it has been impressive with highlight-reel submissions of Thiago Perpetuo in hostile territory in Brazil in March, and against Brock Jardine in February 2013. But he has yet to put back-to-back wins together in the promotion.

Robertson had been set to meet Zak Cummings at UFC Fight Night 45 next month in Atlantic City, N.J. But Cummings was pulled from that fight to meet Gunnar Nelson in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 46 in Dublin three days later. That left Robertson without an opponent, but now he’ll be shifted from the East Coast to Las Vegas, and 10 days earlier.

Alcantara, brother of UFC bantamweight Iuri Alcantara, made his octagon debut in January 2013, earning a light heavyweight win over Wagner Prado. He then dropped all the way down to 170 pounds and has gone 2-1 in that division, sandwiching wins over Albert Tumenov and Leandro Silva around a loss to Igor Araujo.

The 27-year-old Ponzinibbio was a finalist on “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2,” but he suffered a broken arm in a semifinal win over Leonardo Santos and was forced to withdraw from the tourney final. Ponzinibbio made his official UFC debut in November but suffered a decision loss to Ryan LaFlare. Now injury has put him back on the shelf again.

With the change to the card, the UFC 175 lineup now includes:

• Champ Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida – for middleweight title
• Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis – for women’s bantamweight title
• Vitor Belfort vs. Chael Sonnen
• Alex Caceres vs. Urijah Faber
• Matt Mitrione vs. Stefan Struve
• Uriah Hall vs. Thiago “Marreta” Santos
• Chris Camozzi vs. Bruno Santos
• Guilherme Vasconcelos vs. Luke Zachrich
• Ildemar Alcantara vs. Kenny Robertson
• Rob Font vs. TBA

For more on UFC 175, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

– Christian Stein contributed to this report

(Pictured: Kenny Robertson)