Yair Rodriguez has had some of the most exciting fights in the octagon in his first few UFC fights. After winning his first three UFC fights by unanimous decision, he won his fourth fight against Andre Fili at UFC 197 with a spectacular jumping head-kick. He’ll be looking to continue to rise up the UFC featherweight rankings with a win over Alex Caceres.
Yair Rodriguez vs. Alex Caceres Preview
Caceres is coming off of an impressive win against Cole Miller at UFC 199 in which he dominated with his striking. Rodriguez is known for his crazy, unorthodox striking where he likes to use a lot of jumping and spinning attacks. He has a black belt in tae-kwon-do and uses devastating leg-kicks to chop down his opponents. Caceres is also known for using a lot of spinning attacks, as well as switching his stance a lot and using knees and elbows.
Keys for Rodriguez:
Rodriguez will mainly use his striking because that’s obviously his best attribute, but he’s also got an underrated ground game. Rodriguez has devastating elbows off of his back and also likes to go for multiple submissions when he’s in that position. He’s very comfortable fighting off of his back, sometimes too comfortable. Caceres likes to strike too though, so it’s unlikely that Rodriguez will be fighting off of his back much.
Rodriguez might actually want to look for some takedowns. Even though he’s a better striker than grappler, Caceres isn’t as dangerous on the ground as he is standing. Rodriguez has shown that he can be patient in top-position and score points. He usually lets his opponent stand back up eventually. Look for Rodriguez to land multiple takedowns and some ground strikes before letting Caceres stand up, and then repeating the same pattern. If Caceres would happen to shoot for some takedowns of his own, Rodriguez has some pretty good takedown defense with a 65 percent success rate.
Keys for Caceres:
Caceres likes a good old-fashioned war. He’ll need to watch out for his opponent in this fight though because he won’t be the only one throwing flying and spinning strikes. Caceres needs to pressure Rodriguez in this fight and keep moving to avoid Rodriguez’s leg-kicks. If Caceres gets flat-footed like he tends to do at times, he’ll need to rely on his quick head-movement to avoid the power shots from Rodriguez. If he does get flat-footed, he’ll also need to check the leg-kicks.
Caceres doesn’t look for takedowns often, but he has some solid grappling skills. Caceres has a record of 12-8, with five of his victories coming via submission. He’s won with an arm-bar, as well as a rear-naked choke twice and a triangle choke twice. Look for Caceres to stand and bang as long as he can in this fight.
Deliberation:
Expect Rodriguez to out-strike Caceres in this one. Rodriguez is just simply faster than Caceres and his leg-kicks will be the key to the fight. Caceres could eventually start shooting for takedowns. However, the only way this fight will go to the ground is if Rodriguez wants it to. Rodriguez will likely pick apart Caceres for five rounds, unless he knocks him out or wins with a choke after stuffing a takedown attempt.
Prediction: Rodriguez defeats Caceres via unanimous decision
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