Welcome back, fans and friends! It’s now time for my second day of “UFC 143 Complete Collection” postings.
I’m counting down and covering all of the major fights on the UFC 143 card, which features an interesting cast of characters from top to bottom.
Yesterday I covered the “UFC Prelims LIVE” Facebook broadcast and the first of four scheduled “UFC on FX” prelims, and today I will wrap up the other three prelims scheduled to air on FX.
First off, we have Alex Caceres vs. Edwin Figueroa.
For an entire season of “The Ultimate Fighter”, Alex Caceres was known by another name: “Bruce Leroy”. Competing on the twelfth season of the popular UFC reality TV show, Caceres fit the mold of the reckless bad boy with a big mouth who actually had some skill.
Caceres would end up losing to teammate and rival Michael Johnson, but not before getting his fifteen minutes of fame.
Currently, Caceres has fought three times in the UFC. Caceres made his UFC debut in March of last year, and has a respectable record of 5-2. That record immediately plummeted to 5-4 after a two-fight losing streak with both losses coming by submission.
Even though they were entertaining fights, the writing was certainly on the wall when Caceres signed to fight Cole Escovedo in November as part of the UFC’s landmark and inaugural “UFC on Fox” event. Luckily for Caceres, he wound up winning that fight by unanimous decision.
His opponent, Edwin Figueroa, made some big waves in his UFC debut in March 2011.
Tasked with fighting hot prospect Michael McDonald after an injury sidelined McDonald’s original opponent Nick Pace, Figueroa fought McDonald for three fantastic rounds of all-out action, eventually losing by unanimous decision. The fact that Figueroa had less than two weeks to train made the fight even more special, and it was awarded “Fight of the Night”.
In his most-recent performance, Figueroa proved what he could do when given a full training camp to prepare for his opponent. Figueroa fought Jason Reinhardt, a ten-year veteran of the sport with over twenty professional Mixed Martial Arts bouts, and beat him by TKO in Round 2.
This is one of those fights that have the potential to be a “sleeper hit” or even even the Fight of the Night.
I really like the UFC 143 prelims. That’s one of the major reasons I decided to do my “Complete Collection” for UFC 143, and this is my favorite fight of all of the prelims.
I’m not sure how entertaining it’ll be if this fight goes to the ground, but on the feet it should be a mile-a-minute encounter that will be a lot of fun to watch.
Figueroa is one of those “kill-me-to-beat-me” fighters. There’s not an ounce of quit in him, and he constantly pushes the pace to try and finish his opponents. Caceres, meanwhile, has shown some good stand-up even though he seems susceptible to the ground game.
Bottom line: if this turns into the kickboxing match I think and hope it will become, we’re in for a real treat.
Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.
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