Alex Caceres will make a weight change in the hope of getting back in the win column.
“Bruce Leeroy,” the 23-year-old fan favorite from Season 12 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” will drop to bantamweight to meet Cole Escovedo at the first UFC on Fox event next month. The UFC announced the fight Wednesday night, saying verbal agreements are in place for the fight.
UFC on Fox 1 will take place Nov. 12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., and will mark the first UFC broadcast under its new television deal with the Fox network, which doesn’t officially begin until 2012. Headlining the card is a heavyweight title fight between champion Cain Velasquez and top contender Junior dos Santos.
Caceres (5-4, 0-2 UFC) is likely in a do-or-die situation in his UFC career. In featherweight bouts, Caceres loss to Mackens Semerzier in his official UFC debut in March, then Jimy Hettes at UFC on Versus 5 in August, both by rear naked choke. In the latter bout, Caceres took the fight on less than two weeks notice when Leonard Garcia bowed out with an injury. While on Season 12 of TUF, Caceres competed as a lightweight.
Escovedo (17-8, 0-2 UFC) will return less than two months from his last fight, a TKO loss to Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 135 last month in Denver. Prior to that, the former featherweight lost to Renan Barao at UFC 130 in May. Also at 0-2 in the promotion, Escovedo probably needs a win to avoid a pink slip. He has lost four of his last five fights.
Aside from the heavyweight title fight at UFC on Fox 1, the card will feature a lightweight contenders fight between Clay Guida and Ben Henderson. Only the Velasquez-dos Santos fight is guaranteed to air on the one-hour Fox broadcast. No official broadcast plans for Guida-Henderson or the rest of the undercard fights have been announced.