The UFC card scheduled for September 20th in Tokyo, Japan lost one of it’s big names when Urijah Faber was forced to pull out of his match with Masanori Kanehara due to an injury. Kanehara will now face Brazilian Alex ‘Bruce LeeRoy’ Cacaeres will step in to face Kanehara.
For Kanehara, who has a 23-11-5 overall record, it will be his UFC debut despite coming off a loss. Prior to dropping a DEEP match against Toshiaki Kitada however, the 31 year old had won 6 fights in a row, 3 by submission and 3 by KO. Kanehara was a wide underdog to Faber for their fight, as Faber is considered one of the top 3 bantamweights in the world today. Because of his resume of close to 40 fights, Kanehara can be justified as an opponent for Faber, but the fact is that Kanehara had a tall order for his first UFC fight.
He must now see an opportunity to win and win big against Caceres. Caceres will be fighting his 11th fight in the UFC now, so despite the long trip to Japan and his recent loss to Urijah Faber in his last outing, Caceres could come in the favorite for the fight by a slight margin when the line opens at the books.
The UFC could use an exciting, explosive match here as they try to build up their presence in Japan. They have never quite mastered a way of doing busniess in Japan, but one step in the right direction would be to have some Japanese fighters experience success. Running Kanehara in there with Faber in his first outing was not something that aligned itself well with that sort of thinking, but bringing in the exciting Caceres, who is a risk taker and has nothing to lose could result in a great fight and a real opportunity for Kanehara to shine.
It is not clear what this means for Faber or how long he will be out. What is known is that he is paid champion’s money without ever having been a champion, and right now the belt is in the hands of his teammate, so he is further away from a title than ever despite an impressive streak tat saw him win 5 of 6.
