It’s time to fight, says Alex Caceres. The seasoned veteran is ready to return to competition and continue his UFC career.
Seven months have passed since Caceres (15-12 MMA, 10-10 UFC) last fought. The last time “Bruce Leeroy” was seen under the octagon lights, he outpointed Steven Peterson to win a unanimous decision back in July at UFC on ESPN 4.
That night in San Antonio, Caceres left with a victory, but also with some bones to repair, which triggered his hiatus.
“After the last fight, I broke my hand in the first round and then I continued the fight, the whole entire fight,” Caceres told MMA Junkie. “It ended up being a very clean but a pretty bad break. They had to do a bit of bone reconstruction to my hand and everything, so that was one part of the time off.”
Caceres was on the sidelines for a couple months, but said he was back to sparring three months after addressing the hand break. The extra time off from competition were used to relocate from Arizona back to South Florida and also take a mental break from the sport.
“I just feel like I needed time off to really recapture myself,” Caceres explained. “I felt like I’ve doing this for a very long time, and I’ve been running like that for more than a decade. I just figured I could just take a little bit of time off, just an extra-long break, then can come back a little stronger.
“I love what I do. I always want to fight,” Caceres continued. “It wasn’t a matter of questioning (my future in MMA). It was just a matter of taking a day off, honestly. Because martial arts, it’s an endeavor that supersedes the physical. And in the career of mixed martial arts and in the UFC, we focus mainly on the physical aspect of martial arts and we can become enveloped into that sportiness style of living when there’s a whole mental, spiritual and philosophical side to martial arts. Sometimes as martial artists we fall short of achieving and realizing and really living, it’s a lifestyle, you know. It’s not a job that I do, so I wanted to really get back into the style of it and not just the work of it.”
Caceres, who has changed his camp from The MMA Lab to Miami’s Freedom Fighters MMA, found it useful to step away from the hype, attention, and media duties that come with being active in the fight game.
“I think it’s highly beneficial not only for your physical career, but also your mental, spiritual health, well-being and state of mind,” Caceres said. “It’s always good to reconnect with yourself, and truly reconnect with yourself. It might be learning how to break away from fake connections with yourself and other people around you and really reconnect with yourself. Truly ask yourself really deep penetrating questions to really find out the inner workings of who you are and the complexities of what you are as a human being.
“For a long time, I heard a lot of – and I know it’s true – but it doesn’t necessarily define me because when I did, we have to look at the history of like, I have so many victories with submissions and that’s where I was really good at. But then they’re like, ‘Oh, but you’re a great standup striker. You’re a striker. You’re a standup fighter. You’re a standup fighter.’ And then I get kind of developed into that identity where I just kind of went into fights actually avoiding the ground because to me and everybody else, I’m a stand up fighter.
“That goes back to what I was saying, like those kind of trading questions. Like, ‘Who are we, really?’ and not just what people panting us to be. And for the most part, most of us fall into traps and we’re stuck in those types of traps and we don’t even know it. We become the label that people label us to be. So I think those types of breaks, mental breaks, especially were to strip off the labels and to strip off pieces of clay, so that the masterpiece can be shown. The less that you have, the more you’ll gain.”
Caceres is in shape and ready to fight whenever the opportunity might arise. He says he’s close to his fight weight, so he wouldn’t mind taking a short-notice opportunity.
“It could be anywhere,” Caceres said. “I’m in shape, I’m ready to go. I always train every day, so it’s not whether I need to get in shape or not, it’s just the state of mind whether I want to fight or not. And I want to fight, so I’m ready whenever the fight is ready. I have never shown up in any of my fights where I come in unprepared or tired or anything. Everybody knows that I’m constantly ready. I was born for this type of confrontation.”
Renewed Alex Caceres ready to return to UFC competition: 'I needed time off'
