“I can’t stress it enough; saying you believe in yourself is easy to say but it’s hard to do,” Caceres told UFC.com. “It started at my fight in Singapore [a 2017 TKO win over Roland Delorme] and since then that belief started coming in flashes. In the past five camps I’ve been feeling that consistently. I’ve been rising to the level consistently, and there is no goal or end point for me.
“I’m being open to my progression and believing in it.”
And more importantly, it’s working. Caceres has finished two of his opponents by rear naked choke during his win streak, including a crazy bout with SeungWoo Choi his last time out. Caceres faced plenty of adversity in that fight but stayed the course and relied on his bread-and-butter grappling prowess to get the win.
“We knew what we were doing and knew what we wanted, and we knew that he would be aggressive,” Caceres said of his fight with Choi. “We knew that we were the better grappler so when the opportunity arises, we could take advantage of it.”
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Getting comfortable with every facet of his game is part of the reason why Caceres is on the best run of his career and why he believes he matches up so well with Yusuff.
“I see similarities from my last fight with Choi [with Yusuff],” Caceres said. “I do see me where I found success with Choi, finding success with Sodiq. A lot of opportunities will be there.
„I feel like my strikes are there and my grappling will be there. Everyone is going to say they are confident; all I can tell you is I do see these things and I’m going to try to achieve them and do the best that I can.”
