Alex Caceres wins unanimous decision over Kevin Croom at UFC Vegas 20
Alex Caceres vs. Kevin Croom Preview:
UFC Fight Night 186 goes down tonight live from Las Vegas, Nevada, for their 20th Vegas event since the start of Covid.
Headlining the event is an incredibly intriguing clash between heavyweight kickboxing champions Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Ciryl Gane. Whoever wins this fight may need one more victory, and they’re right there for a title shot.
Co-headlining the event came a bout between light-heavyweight finishers in Nikita Krylov and Magomed Ankalaev, a very important bout in the 205 lb division. They’ve both been on absolute fire lately.
Opening up the main card tonight, as titled, was a featherweight bout between longtime UFC veteran Alex Caceres, and Kevin Croom, who put on his sophomore effort tonight.
Caceres has shown us some moments of true brilliance, but has also fallen short a number of times. Croom just finished highly regarded lightweight prospect Roosevelt Roberts in his UFC debut, though his victory was overturned.
Continue reading to see how this featherweight clash went down:
Official Result: Alex Caceres def. Kevin Croom via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)
Round 1
Caceres comes out very loose and fluent as he always has, and Croom is having a tough time figuring out his timing. He’s lunging in with strikes in order to tie up with Caceres, but is unable to take him down.
Croom does end up securing a momentary, non-traditional takedown, but Caceres is right back up and defending takedown attempts again.
Round 2
Croom comes out very aggressive in round two and is again trying for the takedown. He’s unable to secure his initial attempt and eats a few slick punches for his troubles.
Caceres is defending the takedowns, but he isn’t able to keep Croom off of him. In the middle of their clinch, Caceres goes for a knee and ends up on his back. Croom is laying in his guard, not doing too much, catching his wind.
Caceres throws up a triangle, and gets very close to securing it, but after about 20-to-30 seconds of trying to finish it, he leg it go, to our surprise. As Paul Felder is saying, he had it completely locked in, he probably shouldn’t have let it go.
Caceres is back to his feet and defending takedowns along the fence through the rest of the round.
Round 3
Croom is marching forward, walking straight into Caceres’ punches. Caceres is still working hard to stuff Croom’s takedowns, but is showing much better footwork early on in this round.
Croom is tired, but still pushing forward for the takedown, but gets reversed and ends up on his back.
Caceres works his way to Croom’s back with just under two minutes left, and appears close to finishing it for a time there, but just pounded on Croom’s face for the rest of the round.
