Surging Brazilian favorite, Caio Borralho has turned in the most high-profile victory of his Octagon tenure to date tonight…
Surging Brazilian favorite, Caio Borralho has turned in the most high-profile victory of his Octagon tenure to date tonight on the main card of UFC 301 in his natvie country, landing a dominant second round walk-off knockout win over Scottish grappler, Paul Craig.
Borralho, a two-time feature on Dana White’s Contender Series — entered tonight’s fight with Airdrie native, Craig off the back of consecutive victories against Abus Magomedov, Michal Oleksiejeczuk, Makhmud Muradov, Armen Petrosyan, and Gadzhi Omargadzhiev.
And dominating the grappling-heavy Craig tonight in his return to his native Brazil, Borralho rocked the Scottish submission threat countless times throughout the first and second round en route to finish, turned in a brutal eventual stoppage of the former.
Stumbling Craig on the feet once more, Caio Borralho would then follow up with a barrage of shots, eventually connecting with a straight left hand against the fence, forcing Craig to the canvas for a second round knockout win.
Off the back of his victory, Borralho called for a fight with former title challenger, Jared Cannonier in his return, who was recently booked in a headlining fight against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night Louisville later this annum.
Below, catch the highlights from Caio Borralho’s win against Paul Craig
Following the confirmation of his plans to make a move to the promotion’s light heavyweight division, former middleweight champion, Alex Pereira has been backed by compatriot, Caio Borralho to defeat Jamahal Hill, and former titleholder, Jiri Prochazka to mint himself as king at 205lbs. Pereira, who held undisputed middleweight gold up until last weekend, headlined […]
Following the confirmation of his plans to make a move to the promotion’s light heavyweight division, former middleweight champion, Alex Pereira has been backed by compatriot, Caio Borralho to defeat Jamahal Hill, and former titleholder, Jiri Prochazka to mint himself as king at 205lbs.
Pereira, who held undisputed middleweight gold up until last weekend, headlined UFC 287 in Miami, Florida against Israel Adesanya – suffering a second round KO loss to the Nigerian-Kiwi in the pair’s championship re-run.
“I’ll tell you this, he (Alex Pereira) can make history at 205 [pounds],” Caio Borralho told MMA Fighting during a recent interview. “Not cutting so much weight and fighting in a division that doesn’t have so many high-level wrestlers and grapplers, it’s the perfect division for ‘Poatan.’”
“I think (Magomed) Ankalaev could be the toughest fight for him [at light heavyweight]; a Dagestani with high-level grappling,” Borralho said. “He’s a southpaw, too, and we saw ‘Poatan” struggle when (Israel) Adesanya changed to [a] southpaw stance. I think Anklaev is one of the toughest matchups for Pereira – even more than Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill. I think ‘Poatan’ beats both fairly easily.”
Prior to his championship loss to Adesanya last weekend, Pereira minted himself as the division titleholder with a rallying fifth round TKO victory over the Nigerian-Kiwi at UFC 281 back in November at Madison Square Garden.
As for Czech Republic native, Prochazka, the former undisputed champion is expected to challenge Hill next in his return to the Octagon later this year, after a shoulder injury forced him to relinquish his title in December last.
Caio Borralho, who recently beat Jared Cannonier to become a top contender in the UFC middleweight division, is a member of Fighting Nerds. The mixed martial arts gym is based in São Paulo, Brazil, and has gained a ton of prominence in MMA circles lately. Several members of Fighting Nerds have put up impressive performances […]
Caio Borralho, who recently beat Jared Cannonier to become a top contender in the UFC middleweight division, is a member of Fighting Nerds. The mixed martial arts gym is based in São Paulo, Brazil, and has gained a ton of prominence in MMA circles lately.
Several members of Fighting Nerds have put up impressive performances recently. For instance, Bruna Brasil defeated Molly McCann at UFC 304, Carlos Prates became the first person to knock out Li Jingliang at UFC 305, and Jean Silva stopped Drew Dober just two weeks after knocking out Charles Jourdain at UFC 303.
Here’s why Fighting Nerds has the potential to generate multiple UFC champions according to Borralho, one of their most skilled members…
Caio Borralho Reveals Training Strategies That Have Helped Fighting Nerds Members Excel In The UFC
Borralho discussed what sets Fighting Nerds apart in an interview on the Inside Fighting YouTube channel recently. He highlighted that the gym focuses a lot on distance control and fighters are expected to break their fights into three stages. The first step is to establish range followed by constant movement to make the opponent miss.
From the looks of it, Fighting Nerds fighters aim to start their fights relatively slowly. Once they’ve figured out the opponent’s style and striking patterns, they prepare to close distance and aggress which is the third stage.
Borralho then revealed the rigorous practice that goes into perfecting their striking and distance management. For every opponent, they perform thousands of drills which explains why they’re so calm going into their fights.
Another important step during training is studying footage. According to “The Natural”, Fighting Nerds coaches compile videos of opponents to understand how they start fights, throw strikes and takedowns, and move around the Octagon. For his latest fight, Borralho studied almost all the right hands thrown by Cannonier.
“If we get a guy like Cannonier, like the right hand, like all right hands, almost like a lot of right video with just like big right hands of Cannonier. All his setting ups, you know, all his patterns and all this stuff. So, all take downs, all cage work that the guys do, how he behave himself in the cage work and then there’s like five six minutes of video only with cage work, you know. So, we’re very specific in our training. We have a very close approach when it comes about training and study, you know. And I think that help us a lot and I think this is it you know. We’re bunch of nerds you know!”
All in all, Fighting Nerds members make sure to know everything about their opponent before even stepping into the Octagon. Most of the gym’s fighters are gradually climbing the ranks in their respective divisions, and it’ll be interesting to observe how quickly they can generate a champion with this approach.
UFC Fight Night took place tonight from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights! In the main event, ranked middleweights Jared Cannonier (#5) and Caio Borralho (#12) clashed. While in the co-main event, Angela Hill faced Tabatha Ricci in a strawweight matchup. The event […]
UFC Fight Night took place tonight from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and MMA News has you covered with all the results and highlights!
In the main event, ranked middleweights Jared Cannonier (#5) and Caio Borralho (#12) clashed. While in the co-main event, Angela Hill faced Tabatha Ricci in a strawweight matchup. The event also featured this year’s TUF finales.
UFC Fight Night Results: Main Card
Middleweight Main Event: Caio Borralho def. Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (49- 45×2, 48-46)
Women’s Strawweight Co-Main Event: Tabatha Ricci def. Angela Hill via unanimous decision (29-28×3)
Middleweight (TUF 32 Finale): Robert Valentin def. Ryan Loder via TKO: R2, 1.49
UFC Fight Night: Jared Cannonier vs. Caio Borralho takes place on Saturday, and MMA News is here to bring you the official weigh-in results! After staging its latest pay-per-view Down Under at the RAC Arena in Perth this past weekend, mixed martial arts’ leading promotion is back on home soil to put on another card […]
Topping the lineup will be a crucial clash of top contenders in the middleweight division, with former title challenger Jared Cannonier and the fast-rising Caio Borralho both looking to put themselves in a strong position within the title picture.
Elsewhere, the likes of Angela Hill, Neil Magny, and Edmen Shahbazyan will all have their next assignments inside the Octagon, while this year’s TUF finales also go down inside the Apex.
UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Borralho Weigh-In Results
UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Borralho takes place on Saturday, August 24, at the Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card begins at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, with the preliminary card starting at 7 p.m. ET/4p.m. PT.
See above for a live stream of the weigh-ins via MMA Junkie, and check out the full results below!
Main Card:
Middleweight Main Event: Jared Cannonier vs. Caio Borralho
Women’s Strawweight Co-Main Event: Angela Hill vs. Tabatha Ricci
Middleweight (TUF 32 Finale): Robert Valentin vs. Ryan Loder
Featherweight (TUF 32 Finale): Kaan Ofli vs. Mairon Santos
Welterweight: Neil Magny vs. Michael Morales
Middleweight: Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Gerald Meerschaert
Preliminary Card:
Lightweight: Dennis Buzukja vs. Francis Marshall
Middleweight: Zachary Reese vs. Jose Medina
Lightweight: Viacheslav Borshchev vs. James Llontop
Women’s Bantamweight: Jacqueline Cavalcanti vs. Josiane Nunes
Featherweight: Zygimantas Ramaska vs. Nathan Fletcher
Women’s Flyweight: Wang Cong vs. Victoria Leonardo
Caio Borralho has worked with a number of top fighters since joining the UFC, but he says there’s no doubt about which training partner has challenged him the most. The 29-year-old only made his UFC debut last April, but Borralho managed to fit t…
Caio Borralho has worked with a number of top fighters since joining the UFC, but he says there’s no doubt about which training partner has challenged him the most. The 29-year-old only made his UFC debut last April, but Borralho managed to fit three fights into a six-month span and has established himself as one…