Caio Borralho is confident he could outlast Khamzat Chimaev in a potential UFC fight.
With UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis rumored to be sidelined due to injury, Borralho called out No. 1 contender Chimaev, who has entertained the idea by going back-and-forth with the Brazilian on social media.
If the fight was to materialize, Borralho (17-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) thinks he can weather an early storm, drag Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) to the later rounds, and possibly finish him.
“I think the critical point is the first round,” Borralho told Submission Radio. “I think that’s the round that I need to not make a mistake at all. The first round is the dangerous one, and it’s the critical point. After this round, I’m not saying that he is going to go down in his performance or anything like that, but that’s when I’m going up in my performance.
“I think I can still, in the second round, defend some takedowns – even get taken down and get back up and all that – don’t give my back or anything like that that he likes, and then after that start hitting him with some body shots, with some jabs that I’m doing very good with, some calf kicks and all that. And then after that, the fight is getting better and better for me. Maybe a knockout in the fourth round or fifth, or maybe a good decision and domination in the last three rounds.”
Chimaev posted a picture of him carrying Borralho in training, as well as one in which he’s choking him out. Borralho admits he got “beat up” in their sessions, but explains that he was there to help him and serve as a good training partner by going through the motions.
“That was far from a sparring session,” Borralho said. “That was a video of him drilling positions that Allan Finfou was coming to him. Actually, that video is from ‘Embedded’ so we were filming for the UFC. We were doing drilling – he was taking the back, doing a rear-naked choke. Look at that: I didn’t even defend the takedown. It was a drilling session.”
