So far, the Brazilian middleweight has made a habit of besting Eastern European opponents.
“In my opening fight I gave Russian Gadhzi Omargadhziev his first defeat, and three months later UFC gave me the Armenian Armen Petrosyan, and now, the [Uzbekistan native] Muradov,” Borralho told Sherdog.com. “In the main event Charles [Oliveira] will be facing [Islam] Makhachev. Definitely Russian and Eastern European fans will not be very nice to us in Abu Dhabi. But I'm really not worried about that. I have no doubt me and Charles will have a Brazilian party in Abu Dhabi.”
According to Borralho, the experience of having trained with Demian Maia, Paulo Costa, Sean Strickland and having the experienced Vale Tudo fighter Flávio Alvaro as head coach makes him pretty self confident that he can go far in the division.
“Sparring with all those guys takes us to a point where you know you are ready for tough challenges,” he said.
Even coming from a fight against a top striker, Caio says that his camp has totally changed from Petrosyan to Muradov.
“Petrosyan is a world kickboxing champion that kicks a lot and because of that I had to fight from a far range. even though I was able to take him down five times and control the fight,” Borralho said. “Against Muradov we have a totally different game plan since he doesn’t use kicks very much but has a very dangerous overhand.”
Borralho hopes to get his first submission victory inside the Octagon at UFC 280.
“Simply winning is not enough to me,” he said.
Before becoming a professional fighter, Caio was a chemistry teacher, and his passion for studying has motivated him to baptize his team as “Fighting Nerds.”
“I like to represent the nerd community. If I could, I would fight with glasses,” he said. “My main goal as a fighter is to encourage the nerd community to see yhey can learn martial arts, like I did and be respected by the bullies. My catch phrase is ‘It's bully payback time.’”