Featherweights
Julian Erosa (28-9, 6-5 UFC) vs. Alex Caceres (19-13, 14-11 UFC)Every once in a while, a veteran fighter makes an unexpected jump after any potential improvements have been written off. Erosa is one of those cases. The die was seemingly cast on “Juicy J” for years as a fighter just good enough for the fringes of the UFC, enough so that he signed with the promotion three separate times, only getting this most recent call as a late-notice opponent when the UFC was scrambling for options during the pandemic. Erosa has always been a reliably aggressive fighter and spent most of his career with just enough defensive slickness to get him into trouble. Erosa could get through his wins with little damage on the regional scene, but the better athletes in the UFC almost always found a defensive opening against him to score a finish with little issue. By the third UFC go-round, Erosa had gained enough experience that it was just plain harder to knock him out—a tone he immediately set by winning his return fight via third-round comeback against Sean Woodson. A 2021 knockout loss to Seung Woo Choi suggested the old playbook still mostly held true, but Erosa has rebounded and been an obviously smarter fighter in his last few bouts, putting together a practiced performance to score the biggest win of his career against Hakeem Dawodu in September. It has been a similar story of improvement through experience for Caceres, though “Bruce Leeroy” has done most of his learning on the UFC stage. Caceres had a particularly rough start to his UFC career coming off “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2010, but the UFC stuck through him until he rose to potential contender status with an upset win over Sergio Pettis in 2014. However, Caceres never quite got over the hump against elite-level competition and instead settled in as a reliably entertaining but frustrating veteran. Caceres can do a bit of everything, but he has historically just flowed along with whatever fight his opponent is trying to pursue, minimizing his strengths and putting him in a tough spot against potent specialists. Caceres has forced the issue a bit more in recent years and cleaned up on prospect duty during the pandemic era with five straight wins, even though his March loss was a clear reminder that even at his best, he can still run up against a physical ceiling. Caceres should have a speed advantage that he could leverage to make this a frustrating fight for Erosa, but “Juicy J” does seem to have finally struck a balance in terms of effective aggression that should help him pick his spots and win this fight, even though there should be a lot of back-and-forth exchanges. The pick is Erosa via decision.
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Cannonier vs. Strickland
Tsarukyan vs. Ismagulov
Albazi vs. Costa
Erosa vs. Caceres
Dober vs. Green
Oleksiejczuk vs. Brundage
The Prelims