Alex Caceres (17-12, 1NC) enters UFC Vegas 20, where he fights Kevin Croom, on a three-fight win streak. And as he noted earlier this week, he is now one of the longer-tenured fighters in the promotion.
This year marks a decade of “Bruce Leeroy” in the UFC. And while Caceres says there’s “no desire to chase any type of result of that,” at the same time, he also noted during a virtual media day this week that “I don’t feel as if my body is slowing down or deteriorating in any way, shape or form.”
With that in mind, Caceres plans to pursue his mixed martial arts career for a long time yet. And looking back, it’s incredible to see how far Cacares has really come.
The Florida native with the distinctive hair (trimmed back these days, though the plan is to grow it out again) started out in street fighting. The clip below? A young Cacares, in a backyard fight hosted by the infamous Dada 5000.
“I performed in street fights before. I believe the videos are on YouTube as well. So it’s pretty known that that’s where I began my career,” Caceres said when asked about his background all those years ago. Rather than his career, he considers those unsanctioned bouts his start in “competitive fighting.” And as he noted, “I was training years before that as well.”
Cacares is not alone; Jorge Masvidal, for one, is infamous for his involvement in street fights promoted by Kimbo Slice. But street fighting as an MMA base? Caceres tackled that topic as well. “Does street fighting transfer into mixed martial arts in the cage? I can say it does. I can say any type of fighting will do,” he suggested. “You see a lot of styles and people fight very differently out there. And no matter what background they come from, they seem to do pretty well for themselves.”
Of course, a lot of that is hard work. Effort. Drive. Factors in Caceres’ current win streak, no doubt. “I’m always trying to get better. So I can attribute it to time and patience and effort and practice,” he said of his current success. On the other side, he observed, “it’s a puncher’s chance, every time you get in there. Sometimes you lose to the worst, sometimes you lose to the best. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you don’t. It happens.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 20 (UFC Fight Night 186) virtual media day scrum with Alex Caceres above. The event takes place this Saturday, February 27 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV.
