Yuri Alcantara vs. Mackens Semerzier at "UFC: Rio"

As the new bouts have began piling in, the first ever UFC featherweight bout to hit Brazil is now in the works.

Top prospect Yuri Alcantara will be making his UFC debut come this August when he meets with Mackens Semerzier. Both men were veterans of the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion, which has since been assimilated into the UFC and both men were hand picked to remain with the organization.

UFC 134 takes place at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janiero, Brazil on August 27th and will serve as the promotion’s first foray back into the mixed martial arts mecca since 1998. The main-event of the evening will pit pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva against Yushin Okami in a middleweight title bout, though this particular featherweight match-up should not be overlooked.

Alcantara is debuting in the organization as a newly minted featherweight after spending his entire career in the 155-pound class. In his first bout under the Zuffa banner, Yuri met with former lightweight contender Ricardo Lamas at WEC 53 last December. The Brazilian needed less than four-minutes in order to knockout the wrestling powerhouse inside of the first-round. Now riding high on the win, Yuri will hope to continue his winning ways when he meets with Mackens Semerzier, who has proven to be anything but a push over.

Semerzier debuted in the WEC in October of 2009 in impressive fashion, when he submitted Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Wagnney Fabiano with a first-round triangle choke. The win, however, may have hurt Semerzier more than it would help, as he was thrown into the deep end of the division following the victory. After the successful debut, Semerzier went on a three-fight skid with losses to Deividas Taurosevičius, Javier Vazquez, and lastly Cub Swanson. The bout with Swanson last November at WEC 52 earned both men “Fight of the Night” after the two slugged out for a contentious fifteen-minutes of action. In a narrow stretch, Swanson took home the split-decision win.

Despite the 1-3 record inside the WEC, Semerzier was called to duty in the UFC when he was matched up with Alex Caceras, aka “Bruce LeRoy” of “The Ultimate Fighter”, at UFC Fight Night 24. Mackens was able to submit the wily Caceras with a first-round rear-naked choke in less than four-minutes spent inside the cage.

Against Semerzier’s 9 fights as a professional, Alcantara will hold the edge in experience as he will be coming into the bout with an overall record of 24-3. Is Mackens the sacrificial lamb for Yuri, who’s finished 22 of his 24 bouts–that remains to be seen.

TATAME.com initially reported the featherweight bout as essentially a done deal for the pay-per-view event.

So, MMA peeps, what do you think of the match-up? Who do you favor, and how do you see the winner of fitting into the stacked featherweight class? Sound off in the comment section below.