Popular bantamweights Francisco Rivera and Alex Caceres will face off at UFC Fight Night 68.
The event takes place June 6 in New Orleans. This latest addition to the card was first reported Tuesday by MMAJunkie.com.
There are several similarities between the two that make this an interesting matchup.
UFC fans know both men nearly as much for their inconsistency as for their high-octane theatrics in the cage. It is likely that one competitor will display the latter and one will display the former when they face off. With 14 stoppage wins between them, it doesn’t seem like this one doesn’t stand a great chance to go the distance.
.@BruceLeeroyGlow to Face @CiscoRiveraUFC at UFC Fight Night ‘Cormier vs. Bader’ http://t.co/kzAFYO4ONZ pic.twitter.com/yMxHBYMBbi
— Sherdog.com (@sherdogdotcom) April 15, 2015
The 26-year-old Caceres (10-7-1) has dropped two straight, first to perennial contender Urijah Faber and then to a sizable underdog in Masanori Kanehara. However, those losses were prefaced by arguably the best performance of Bruce Leeroy’s career, an excellent submission win over Sergio Pettis in January 2014 that saw him nab two post-fight bonuses from the UFC.
Interestingly, the 33-year-old Rivera (10-4-1) also has two straight defeats coming into this fight, with one of them also coming against Faber. The other was a May defeat to Takeya Mizugaki. The heavy-handed “Cisco” is known most for his boxing acumen and great punching power, which have earned him seven knockout wins as a pro.
The two men also have records and reputations tarnished by failed drug tests. Rivera’s 2012 knockout of Roland Delorme became a no-contest ruling after it was revealed that he popped for ephedra. A positive marijuana test nullified Caceres‘ 2013 win over Kyung Ho Kang.
UFC Fight Night 68 will be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between two elite wrestlers in Ryan Bader and Louisiana native Daniel Cormier. Another Louisiana native, Dustin Poirier, will also appear on the card, taking on Yancy Medeiros in his second fight since returning to the lightweight division.
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