Caio Borralho: UFC on ESPN 62 finish of Jared Cannonier makes me 'next contender' for Du Plessis vs. Adesanya winner

Caio Borralho has been waiting for his opportunity to break through as a middleweight contender, and now he’s on the doorstep as he closes in on the UFC on ESPN 62 main event with Jared Cannonier.

Borralho (16-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) has put together a 16-fight unbeaten streak in MMA competition, including six straight wins in the octagon after earning a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. He now draws former title challenger Cannonier (17-7 MMA, 10-7 UFC) in the Aug. 24 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas (ESPN, ESPN+), and he thinks this is the right opponent for him to prove he’s ready for the next level.

“He’s very experienced guy, he’s very consistent,” Borralho told MMA Junkie. “He can take the fight where he wants all the time, he can explode when he wants. I think he’s a very tricky guy. Very explosive, very strong. I think it’s going to be an awesome fight to watch.”

Although it might seem like Cannonier is especially vulnerable to be picked off in this situation because of a roughly two-month turnaround from a controversial stoppage loss to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC on ESPN 57 in June, Borralho doesn’t see it that way.

Borralho credited Cannonier for the way he takes care of his body at 40 years old, and said the potential damage taken from the loss to Imavov – however debatable – shouldn’t come into the narrative of their fight.

“I thought it was an early stoppage,” Borralho said. “I thought he was winning the fight, he as doing very good. He thought he was taking the fight where he wanted. I think it was an early stoppage. He was already recovered from the shot. … I don’t think he took that much damage from the fight.”

If Borralho is able to beat Cannonier at UFC on ESPN 62, it would alter his stock at 185 pounds in a major way. And if Borralho can finish his first UFC headliner in a highlight-reel fashion? He thinks it would be a hell of an argument to challenge the winner of the next divisional title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya, which takes place at UFC 305 in Australia one week prior to his fight vs. Cannonier.

“Just winning is going to put me in the mix with all these contenders in the top five,” Borralho said. “After winning in extremely impressive fashion, if I knock out Jared Cannonier or if I finish him on the ground or anything like that – I think it puts me right away to the next contender. My last mantra in the last fight with Paul Craig is that I was going to KO Paul Craig. And I did it. Now the mantra for this fight is I’m going to show the new champ has arrived. That’s what I’m going to show to everybody and that’s what I think I’m going to win in a good fashion and be the next contender for sure.

“But anything the UFC wants to give me, I’m a company man. I know what I have all my steps to go, but I know that I will deserve a shot if I finish a guy that was never finished in the right way in the middleweight division. He only lost to Robert Whittaker by decision, and he lost to Adesanya by decision, and that early stoppage against Imavov. If I finish him, definitely people are going to look at me as the next contender. That’s my mantra.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 61.