On first four-fight scurry in seven years, Alex Caceres ready for transcension

By Matt Erickson and Ken Hathaway |

March 1, 2021 3: 30 pm

LAS VEGAS – Alex Caceres beat Kevin Croom with a unanimous decision Saturday to originate up the most critical card at UFC Fight Night 186 in Las Vegas.

Have a ogle within the fight with Caceres, who has four straight wins for the most critical time in seven years.

Alex Caceres vs. Kevin Croom

Result: Alex Caceres def. Kevin Croom by task of unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)

Up so far records: Caceres (18-12 MMA, 13-10 UFC), Croom (21-13 MMA, 0-1 UFC)

Key stat: Caceres outstruck Croom 97-26 and landed 80 p.c of his total strikes.

Caceres on the fight’s key second

“I accurate knew that I felt colossal and that he was once going to begin to overreach. He began going for them desperately. I danger him a lot on the feet and the splendid thing that I can feel sorry about will not be capitalizing on that. But I love grinding, so it’s miles what it’s miles. With this performance in order, I felt that I genuinely got to showcase a exiguous bit extra of my wrestling and grappling.”

Caceres on his prep for the ground game

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 27: (R-L) Alex Caceres punches Kevin Croom in a featherweight bout for the length of the UFC Fight Night tournament at UFC APEX on February 27, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

“(I) felt colossal about it. I felt mercurial on the feet. I felt very relaxed, love I would perhaps presumably glimpse the entire punches coming, all his strikes coming. So I knew that when I started feeling no doubt colossal on the feet, I knew he was once going to glimpse that and plod for takedowns all day, and we were ready for that. We’ve been practising, me and my coach and teammates. We’ve been working on accurate attempting to grind me into the cage, grind me into the ground. I do know my wrestling and my jiu-jitsu got great better, so I do know he was once going to battle attempting to invent that to me.”

Caceres on what he wants next

“I haven’t no doubt keep great thought into it. I accurate know when I receive encourage home, I accurate desire to receive encourage and enhance. And accurate enhance, not necessarily as a martial artist, nonetheless as a human being. I need to transcend myself and preserve transcending myself. This scramble of existence never stops until we die. So until I meet that closing free up, I need to glimpse the extent of my abilities in all positive aspects of my existence.

“No doubt, I need to invent reworking my home and fixing up my garden. I’m doing the entire lot myself, so I’d capture to dive deep encourage into my work.”

To hear extra from Caceres, take a look at out the video of the chubby put up-fight interview above.