Proudly representing
The Fighting Nerds from Brazil, Caio
Borralho (16-1) recently provided a detailed breakdown of his
upcoming
Ultimate Fighting Championship bout.
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Borralho headlines UFC
on ESPN 62 against perennial middleweight contender Jared
Cannonier (17-7) on Saturday at the Apex in Las Vegas. Unbeaten
in six UFC outings, the middleweight expects a title shot next if
he can finish Cannonier.
Borralho believes Cannonier’s biggest advantage against him will be
“The Killa Gorilla’s” experience. Borralho observes that Cannonier
is capable of dictating the pace of the fight, slowing it down or
picking it up at will. “The Natural” believes Cannonier’s biggest
strength is his immense experience of fighting five-rounders, which
includes a failed title bid against Israel
Adesanya in 2022.
“So, I think one of his biggest advantages is his experience,”
Borralho told Shakiel Mahjouri. “He knows how to take the fight
where he wants. He likes to [control] the pace of the fight.
Sometime he likes to slow it a little bit and he makes the guys get
a little bit slower. And then he wants to make it a little bit
faster so he [forces] the guy to have a lot of mistakes in the
fight. His experience [will] bring me the most dangerous thing in
him. Of course he’s a powerful guy, very big guy with a lot of
strength and power. But I think his experience with a lot of main
events, with a lot of five-round fights, former title challenger
and all this stuff, I think this is his biggest advantage against
me.”
Meanwhile, Borralho believes age will be on his side against the
40-year-old Cannonier. Borralho believes the Cannonier he fights on
Saturday is not the same one that finished Anderson
Silva in the first round in 2019, or even the one that fought
Adesanya for the title. Borralho saw Cannonier slowing down toward
the end of his controversial fourth-round TKO loss against Nassourdine
Imavov this past June. Borralho believes the holes in
Cannonier’s game will be exposed as the fight goes into deep waters
and he plans to exploit those.
“And for me, I think my biggest advantage against him is my
movement, how I move my feet inside the Octagon. And for sure, my
age,” Borralho said. “He’s 40 right now, so I think he’s not the
same guy when he was fighting Anderson Silva or he was fighting for
the title [at] 35-36 years old. Now at 40, for sure his body
doesn’t feel the same way anymore. In the fight with Imavov, he
started to slow down a little bit with a five-round fight. So
that’s when he get a little bit sloppy, that’s when [he] slows
down, that’s when he make a little bit of mistake. That’s the holes
that I need to [exploit] when I meet in the cage with him.”