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.”
Reference: https://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Caio-Borralho-Breaks-Down-UFC-on-ESPN-62-Matchup-vs-Jared-Cannonier-194714
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