“I would say that it’s shadow work,” Cachero said. “Carl Jung, the great psychologist, talks about the shadow, the kind of repressed emotions and feelings inside of you, and for me, I’ve always been a competitor. On the outside, I’m a guy who’s never even been in a streetfight. I’m not a violent person, I’m pretty passive, and I love exploring weird, existential ideas and stuff, yet there’s always something deep inside of me that’s this desire to compete and this desire to almost fight and do violence since they’re the furthest things from my personality on the outside. So as soon as I start getting into the cage, it all starts to get expressed. I love fighting, I love being in there, I love throwing down. I walk forward and I’m looking to throw down and looking to be violent in there. I don’t know what it is other than just a pure love of the fight game.”
If you didn’t already know from the description of him as an artist, referring to Carl Jung in an interview should cement your opinion of Cachero as the unicorn of the fight business.
“Listen, man, my nickname’s ‘The Anomaly’ for that reason,” he laughs. “That’s just how it is. I’ve always been a weird kid and I’ve always been a fly on the wall – I love observing, I love thinking, and yeah, I definitely think I’m a different personality in this game and it’s been a fun rise, for sure, but I want to show the people out there that it’s cool to be your own person and it’s all right to be your own person.”
MORE UFC VEGAS 20: Rozenstruik’s Lesson | Fighters On The Rise | Fight By Fight Preview | Thiago Moises | Rise Of Ciryl Gane | Fantasy Stats | Kevin Croom | Alexis Davis | Sabina Mazo | Pedro Munhoz | Angela Hill | Watch On ESPN+
For even more insight into Vince Cachero the person, look no further than the film he made, entitled “Art on Lockdown.” It’s 32 minutes best described by the man who created it, but just know that watching it can be an emotional ride, especially when the film touches on his brother Charlie, who bravely battled cystic fibrosis until his tragic death at the age of eight in 2005.
“That (the creation of the film) actually started when quarantine happened and they completely shut down the whole country,” said Cachero. “And especially since I was living in LA at the time, we were in lockdown-lockdown. But I’ve been a creator for a long time. I used to shoot photos and videos at Blackhouse – Anderson (Silva), Lyoto (Machida) and all those guys – and that’s really when I dove into photography and videography. Specifically, the ‘Art on Lockdown’ project was a swell of emotions and thoughts and ideas that have always been rumbling through my head. I wanted to put it together into a piece. So basically, I was pumping out those videos almost every single day in a row. It was kind of designed in the idea of Joseph Campbell’s ‘A Hero’s Journey’ and taking people through this guided trip, showing all these influences that have affected me. It was an expression of what I love, what I think about, and my whole purpose is to help create and inspire growth. That’s my own mission statement, so with that project, I feel like that’s the biggest and best thing I’ve done so far in my life to help create and inspire growth, not just in myself, but in others as well.”
