Caio Borralho dug deep when he wanted it most to select up the largest win of his profession.
The Preventing Nerds standout improved his win streak to 16 fights as he outlasted Jared Cannonier in a five-round struggle to cap off Saturday’s UFC Vegas 96 battle card on the APEX.
All three judges scored the battle for Borralho, with two giving the surging 185-pounder 4 of the 5 rounds. The official scores have been 49-45, 49-45, and 48-46.
The battle started with Borralho touchdown a pair of arduous jabs that left some harm on the nostril of Cannonier, adopted by a nasty eye poke from Borralho. Because the motion resumed, Cannonier landed a pleasant left hook, however Borralho delivered a pair of brutal calf kicks that have been fairly efficient. Cannonier was in a position to have some good moments, however Borralho merely had extra of them.
Each males got here out fairly aggressive in Spherical 2 as Cannonier put Borralho on the again foot, however the Brazilian continued to have success with the jab. Cannonier landed a heavy proper hand that noticed Borralho’s face change, adopted by a pleasant mixture. The arrogance of “Killa Gorilla” grew because the spherical progressed and took momentum into the third.
Issues have been a bit extra tentative to begin the third, however each males landed some photographs. The ultimate minute is the place issues actually turned up as Borralho had Cannonier badly harm after a mixture, however the 40-year-old battled by means of it — and even landed a couple of good punches — earlier than the horn sounded. Because the championship rounds started, Cannonier discovered early success with some fantastically timed counter punches and combos. The one-time title challenger had the largest moments in Spherical 4, and even busted open a minimize beneath the proper eye of Borralho, but it surely was a really shut stanza.
The ultimate spherical was a battle of attrition, with each fighters feeling the consequences of the earlier 20 minutes. The fighter who transfer forwarded regularly discovered success in a back-and-forth battle — that was, till Borralho dropped Cannonier with a brutal shot. The battle appeared very near being stopped, however referee Dan Miragliotta let it play out. Borralho slapped on an arm-triangle choke, however Cannonier was in a position to survive and make it to the ultimate horn to cap off an ideal battle.
With the win, “The Pure” strikes to 7-0 contained in the octagon, and can probably have a single-digit quantity subsequent to his identify when the brand new UFC middleweight rankings come out on Monday. Following the victory, Borralho referred to as for middleweight champ Dricus du Plessis, though he’ll probably have a bit extra work to do earlier than he will get that chance.
Cannonier has now dropped two straight, together with a TKO loss to Nassourdine Imavov in the principle occasion of UFC Louisville in June.
