Caio
Borralho knows he’s on the precipice of big things in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division.
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The Fighting Nerds product earned the most signifcant victory
of his career to date in the UFC
on ESPN 62 headliner, as he weathered a game effort from
Jared
Cannonier to capture a unanimous decision triumph on Saturday
night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Borralho nearly finished the
contest in the fifth round to put a stamp on his seventh
consecutive promotional triumph. The Brazilian known as “The
Natural” came away quite pleased with his performance against a
former middleweight title challenger.
“I wasn’t there to grapple. I was there to bring fire and be
comfortable in the danger, because Jared’s a very dangerous
opponent,” Borralho said at the post-fight press conference. “My
jab was was on point, my calf kicks were on point, and I just did
the job. I almost got the finish.
“I think the ref should have finished it, should have stopped the
fight [in the fifth round] because Jared was [hurt] very bad, but
it is what it is. I’m very thankful to be there [for] 25 minutes
with one of the best in the world — and tell me one guy that did
that to Jared. Tell me. There’s no one that did that to Jared the
way I did it.”
Borralho now believes he is ready to take his place among the elite
in the UFC’s middleweight division.
“I think [this win] takes me to one of the best in the world,”
Borralho said. “Like, I’m Top 5 right now. At least, I deserve a
Top-5 spot on Tuesday. And I think I proved myself as one of the
best in the division — that I can strike. That I cannot only
grapple, I can strike. I have the grappling, I have the wrestling,
I have the durability, I have the chin, I have the power.
“I think I showed everyone that tonight, and it’s just going to
take me to my belt. The mantra of this training camp was to show
the new champ arrived, and I think I showed that a little bit. If
I’m not the next one [to fight for the title], at least when
there’s a conversation about who’s the next one, my name is going
to be around there. I know that.”
Borralho is likely behind Sean
Strickland, and potentially, the Robert
Whittaker–Khamzat
Chimaev winner, in the middleweight championship queue. That’s
fine with the surging Brazilian, who knows that he is at least part
of the conversation.
“I want a title shot, that’s for sure, but I’m a company man,”
Borralho said. “Whoever Hunter [Campbell] and Dana [White] send me
to fight, if they’re people above me or something like that, like
the fight that I deserve, the fight that’s going to put me even
more close to the belt, I’m going to take it, because I’m the
company man.”