To earn the biggest win of his UFC career, the nerd had to dig deep.
For all of 25 minutes, Caio Borralho and Jared Cannonier battled in a nonstop slugfest in the UFC on ESPN 62 main event. And in the the end, it was The Fight Nerds’ Borralho who dug just a little bit deeper to earn a unanimous decision win by scores of 49-45, 49-45 and 48-46.
The victory over No. 5 Cannonier should vault Borralho, No. 12, toward the top of the official UFC middleweight rankings – and he made it clear that better be the case.
“Tuesday, my name better be in the top five,” Borralo, who remained undefeated in the UFC, said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping.
Borralho (17-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) got off to a strong start with a calculated first round as he picked his shot wisely, but Cannonier (17-8 MMA, 10-8 UFC) seemed to get his swagger going in Round 2, even at one point appearing to wobble Borralho. But in Round 3, Borralho clearly wobbled Cannonier with hard straight left in the final minute, which separated an otherwise close round. The action continued at a high pace in Round 4, with Cannonier busting open Borralho’s right eye by landing a hard combination.
There was no reason for either man to feel comfortable heading into the fifth, and it showed in their approaches, with Borralho and Cannonier still slipping and dipping and throwing counters at each other. Borralho, however, erased all doubt when he landed a right hook followed by a stiff left that dropped Cannonier to the canvas with under 2 minutes remaining. Borralho kept control by working for an arm-triangle choke for the remainder of the round, which sealed the deal.
With the hard-fought win in his back pocket, Borralho, wearing his signature thick black-framed glasses with tape in the middle, felt emboldened to declare a takeover.
“I’m the new face (of the middleweight division), even with some scratches,” Borralho said. “Everybody that sees these glasses must be afraid, because we are The Fighting Nerds. We’re coming to take over!”
Below are complete UFC on ESPN 62 results:
- Caio Borralho def. Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 48-46)
- Tabatha Ricci def. Angela Hill via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Ryan Loder def. Robert Valentin via TKO (ground-and-pound) – Round 2, 1:49
- Mairon Santos def. Kaan Ofli via knockout (punches) – Round 2, 1:30
- Michael Morales def. Neil Magny via TKO (ground-and-pound) – Round 1, 4:39
- Gerald Meerschaert def. Edmen Shahbazyan via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 2, 4:12
- Francis Marshall def. Dennis Buzukja via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
- Zach Reese def. Jose Medina via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Viacheslav Borshchev def. James Llontop via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
- Jacqueline Cavalcanti def. Josiane Nunes via split decision (30-27, 29-28, 27-30)
- Wang Cong def. Victoria Leonardo via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 1:02
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 62.
