Athletes
Caio Borralho: “Pressure Is A Privilege”
“The Natural” Hopes To Secure His Sixth Victory In The UFC Against Scotland”s Paul Craig In Front Of The Rio Crowd At UFC 301
Caio Borralho couldn’t be happier with how his life is going.
The 31-year-old Brazilian gets to make his second UFC showing in Brazil, after earning a unanimous decision victory last November in his home city of São Paulo. It’s now been two years since Borralho first made his UFC debut, and since then he has gone 5-0 inside the Octagon. Throughout those two years, Borralho has always been calm, cool and collected before, during and after fights. The reason behind his composure is simple.
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“I changed the meaning of pressure to me,” Borralho said. “For me, pressure is a privilege. Every time I'm right here, I think about all the athletes that wanted to be here, and God chose me. Pressure is a privilege. I'm a guy that is privileged to be here to talk with you guys, with my team and everybody, and living all this. There's a thousand guys that could give their lives to be here and do the same thing that I'm doing. For sure, there's pressure, but I love pressure because pressure is a privilege.”
Heading into this fight week, Borralho emphasized how blessed he felt to be able to compete in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 301.
But this one feels extra special to the middleweight because he has two teammates competing on this card: Mauricio Ruffy and Jean Silva. Borralho was with both during their Dana White’s Contender Series fights and is excited that they are all able to showcase their skills on the same card inside Farmasi Arena on Saturday night.
“The energy is ten times bigger; all the energy when we were in the training camp and we were training and now in fight week and everything, I think the energy brought us here and the energy will bring us the victory,” Borralho said. “I feel the same energy when I'm by myself, but I feel it like ten times more, it's just amazing.”
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Borralho prepares to face Scotland’s Paul Craig, who sits one spot higher than him in the rankings. This matchup gives Borralho an opportunity to jump ahead of Craig and put him one spot closer to reaching the ultimate goal, the title.
“I respect Paul Craig,” Borralho said. “I think he's a great athlete. He won a lot of good fights from good guys. I don't even need to tell their names, but I know he's a very experienced guy, big, tall guy, and has good traps when he's on his back on the ground. On the feet, he likes to throw some kicks and everything. I think he is a great opponent. I think this is a great opportunity for me to show my work.”
His fight against Borralho marks Craig’s third in the middleweight division after spending his career in the light heavyweight division previously. Craig’s middleweight campaign started off strong against Andre Muniz in London last July, as he submitted his foe in the second round. But things came to a halt last November after he was submitted by Brendan Allen in the third round of their main event bout.
Borralho knows that Craig is bringing some new strengths to the 185-pound division, but he plans to show him something special.
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“As a middleweight, I think he got better a little bit, he got a little bit faster,” Borralho said. “He is taller than most of the guys in the division. I think he has this kind of advantage and that's it, but I don't think he matches my style. I don't think he matches my abilities and my heart, so I will bring him something that he didn't see yet.”
When it comes to gameplan and the matchup stylistically, Borralho and his team, The Fighting Nerds, have studied up and know what their plan is.
“I'm very aware of everything that he's going to do, and I always do my homework,” Borralho said. “I'm a nerd who fights, so I've been studying all the time, we've been watching tapes all the time and we watch fights all the time. I've been doing my homework; the one thing that you can be sure of is that the nerds always do their homework. So, I did mine and you're going to see on Saturday in the test.”
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Borralho knows the feeling of walking out in front of a crowd in Brazil, and he’ll, of course, draw energy from that, but he’s staying focused on the task at hand. Defeating Craig would mark his sixth victory in the UFC, and “The Natural” believes this victory has all the power in the world to make him a real star in Brazil and finally have people start recognizing him and his talent.
But regardless of if that win comes on Saturday night, Borralho will be celebrating because he knows he has won at the game of life.
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“I'm visualizing everything. I'm here with my granddad, my dad, my mom is coming, my wife is coming. My son is coming to see me fight for first time,” Borralho said. “We're just going to celebrate and we're not going to celebrate the win, we're going to celebrate life because life has been good for me. God is being good with me. And if even if I lose or anything bad happens, I'm going to celebrate because life has been good.”
UFC 301: Pantoja vs Erceg took place live from Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 4, 2024. See the Final Prelim and Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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