UFC has its fair share of religious fighters who represent different faiths practiced by people across the globe. There are also quite a lot of fighters who fall on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Usually, insulting one’s religion is not taken well by the fighters (especially Muslim ones). Featherweight Alex Caceres unfortunately has decided to go after religion.
Alex Fought on the last fight card of the year against Julian Erosa where he won via TKO. This victory takes his total number of wins to 20 and the American is clearly ecstatic. He recently appeared in an interview with Ariel Helwani where he was asked about his thoughts on religion.
“With religion, especially when it’s in (indoctrinated) religion. There’s a big distinction for me between religion and spirituality. Religion’s for immature people. When you’re maturing, you’re gonna be more spiritual.”
Such remarks come mainly as an insult to the Muslim fighters in UFC. Lightweight GOAT, Khabib Nurmagomedov puts religion over all other things. He doesn’t drink, gamble, or make any unnecessary contact with women. He is also regular in his prayers and other religious obligations like Ramadan.
Current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev also follows a similar path. Rafael ‘Ataman’ Fiziev and Rinat Fakhretdinov turned down big fights as they did not want to fight their Muslim brothers. Welterweight Belal Muhammad recently talked about abstaining from betting as Islam doesn’t allow it.
Abubakar Nurmagomedov, Tagir Ulanbakar, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Magomed Ankalaev, Damir Ismagulov, and Shavkat Rakhmonov are just a few names on the long list of devout Muslim fighters. These fighters act in accordance with their faith before the public and most fans are appreciative of such actions.
Alex’s snarky attempt at insulting such fighters is not the first to come out of UFC as Michael Bisping passively insulted Islam in an argument regarding Covid and Dana White attacked Yoel Romero after the middleweight went on a preaching rant.
Why would Caceres be angry about Islam?
While we don’t know much about ‘Bruce Leeroy’s personal experiences that shape his opinions, his UFC record does offer a possible insight.
The MMA LAB representative went on a 5 fight winning streak which was stopped by Sodiq Yusuff on UFC Fight Night 203. While we can’t say this for certain, but this fight may have grown some phobia inside the Americans.
Such events are highly regrettable as many are trying to combat Islamophobia through sports. We hope UFC does more to stop the spread of such hate from its fighters.
