Alex Caceres

Alex Caceres (born June 20, 1988) is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Caceres mostly competed in his regional circuit, before signing with the UFC to appear on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck.

As of February 6, 2024, he is #15 in the UFC featherweight rankings.

Caceres comes from Miami, Florida, where he trains at Young Tigers Foundation.

Caceres claims to be "inventive and creative" during the fights, often smiling during competition.

Caceres also never went the distance in any of his fights prior to joining the TUF cast.

Caceres' nickname, "Bruce Leeroy" stems from the character in the film The Last Dragon.

Caceres initially fought in an underground backyard street fighting organization in Miami.

Caceres mostly appeared in promotions based in Florida.

Amongst these was an appearance for the King of the Cage promotion at "King of the Cage: Hurricane" in February 2009.

His opponent in that fight was Eric Kovarik, who was coming off multiple consecutive losses.

In under two minutes, Caceres submitted his opponent with a rear naked choke.

Caceres then won his next fight against Joel Garcia in May 2009 via submission (triangle choke) early in the first round before going on a two-fight losing streak.

These two losses were both by armbar, taking his record to 4-2 at that time.

In his final fight before joining The Ultimate Fighter, Caceres defeated Jahmal McLennan via TKO midway through the third round to snap his losing streak.

Caceres then signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to appear on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck.

In the debut episode, Caceres faced Paul Barrow, who was 3-0 going into the show.

Caceres, who smiled almost the entire fight, would go to defeat Barrow via submission (rear naked choke) in the first round.

In the second episode, Caceres was picked as GSP's fourth pick (eighth overall).

Caceres competed in his preliminary round fight during this episode against Jeff Lentz.

Prior to the fight, Lentz's cardio was called into question due to his smoking and drinking.

However, Lentz went on to arguably win the first round of the fight against Caceres.

Midway through the second round, Caceres locked in a triangle choke, forcing the tapout and advancing him into the quarter-finals.

In episode 8, Team GSP had to pick which team members would fight each other (considering they had 5 members in the quarter-finals).

St. Pierre asked each member to pick the fighter they would prefer to fight.

Both Caceres and Michael Johnson picked each other and they were scheduled to fight.

Johnson defeated Caceres via unanimous decision (20-18, 20-18, 20-18) after two rounds in episode 10.

Caceres made his official debut in March 2011 against Mackens Semerzier at UFC Fight Night: Nogueira vs. Davis.

He lost the fight via submission in the first round.

Caceres was expected to face Leonard Garcia August 14, 2011, at UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle.

However, Garcia was forced out of the bout with an injury and replaced by promotional newcomer Jimy Hettes.

Caceres was submitted with a rear naked choke at 3:12 of round 2.

Caceres then dropped to the bantamweight division and faced former WEC Bantamweight champion Cole Escovedo on November 12, 2011, at UFC on Fox 1.

Caceres won via unanimous decision in a bout where he showed a vastly improved striking and ground game.

Caceres faced Edwin Figueroa on February 4, 2012, at UFC 143 but lost the fight in a split decision.

Caceres was docked two points by referee Herb Dean for 2 groin strikes.

Caceres next faced Damacio Page on July 11, 2012, at UFC on Fuel TV: Munoz vs. Weidman.

He won the fight via submission in the second round.

The finish also earned him the Submission of the Night honors.

Caceres was expected to face promotional newcomer Kang Kyung-ho on November 10, 2012, at UFC on Fuel TV 6.