http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/4/1...keith-berrish-brazilian-middleweight-mma-news
The latest of these is a Brazilian middleweight, coming in to replace the injured (again) Keith Berish at UFC Vegas: Almeida vs. Garbrandt. Berish was set to face Jake Collier on the Fight Night undercard.
According to MMAJunkie, Uda will step in on two months notice, which should be more than enough for a full camp. So...
Who is Alberto Uda?
The 31-year-old Brazilian comes to the UFC training out of Thai Gaspar, a Nova Uniao affiliate out of Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil. It seems to be a gym mostly focused on training competitive muay thai fighters, and Uda himself is apparently just returning from a stint over in Thailand where he won a tournament title. In MMA, Uda stands undefeated with a 9-0 pro record and all but one of his wins coming by way of stoppage. Most recently he beat former UFC fighter Thiago Perpetuo, but he also has wins over regional standouts Thiago Rela, Junior Albini, and UFC vet Rick Monstro. All told, he's got a pretty exceptionally strong regional record, and the fact that he's winning most of his fights by stoppage is a great sign.
What you should expect:
Uda is a fighter of two parts and both of them are really very solid. He's an excellent clinch fighter, and he's a very good fighter off his back. He's also not bad at stuffing a takedown. He might get put on the mat by power wrestlers, but he'll probably make them work for it. At range, he's a functional, but clunky striker. He'll throw out a variety of kicks to keep distance, and can throw a straight 1-2, but his hands don't come back well defensively and he seems to get off balance pretty easily. It's just not a comfortable place for him. He absolutely does his best work inside, both with dirty boxing and the plum, he's great at framing for knees and at landing sharp punches when chest to chest. He's a very dangerous fighter to close down and try and grind.
Interestingly, he's not that dangerous a fighter from top control. He'll pepper away with short punches if you're willing to absolutely give him control, but he's not great at creating offense and staying on top. He's much more likely to lose position and return to the clinch. From his back, however, Uda is a crafty guard grappler, who does a great job stifling opponents movement while he sets up submissions. That may not fly long term in the UFC, where guard games tend to get torn apart, but it makes his clinch striking much tougher to work around.
What this means for his debut:
This will be an interesting challenge, as Collier is something of a jack of all trades. He's not a terrible striker, or wrestler or grappler or clinch fighter, but he's not amazing at any of those things too. And he's also very willing to go wherever his opponent wants in the fight. Collier is probably at his best when he can get into a scramble on the mat, as he has a good nose for finding strikes and submissions in transitions. However, like Uda, his range striking is there but not dependable, and his wrestling works but isn't beautiful. I might give Uda the edge, just because if he can punish Collier in the clinch he may be able to make Collier have to try and outpoint him from range. If this ends up being a crazy ground battle, it's anyone's fight.
