Caio Borralho has his own version of the 185-pound title queue, and Khamzat Chimaev isn’t in it. Speaking to reporters at UFC 334 media day in New York, Borralho named three fighters he believes have earned the next crack at the middleweight belt: Joe Pyfer, Brendan Allen and himself.
“We have three big names right now to go to the belt,” Borralho said, according to MMA Junkie. “I don’t think Khamzat (Chimaev) deserves right now to go to the belt. I think we have Pyfer, Brendan Allen, and myself.”
He didn’t explain the Chimaev snub beyond that line. He did sketch out how he thinks the shortlist should sort itself, suggesting that after he wins Saturday, the three contenders might fight each other to decide who goes first.
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The title itself is spoken for at the moment. Sean Strickland’s next defense is expected to come against Nassourdine Imaov, which puts Borralho in an awkward spot, because Imaov is the man who handed him his first UFC loss last September. Borralho answered that setback with a unanimous decision over Reinier de Ridder at UFC 326 in March, and he now sits at 18-2 overall and 8-1 in the UFC. He’s No. 7 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie middleweight rankings.
Which brings us to Saturday. Borralho meets Yousri Belgaroui (11-3, 3-0 UFC) in the feature middleweight bout at Madison Square Garden, and he was honest that the booking didn’t thrill him at first. He had been calling for Dricus du Plessis and was supposed to fight Pyfer before landing on an opponent without a number next to his name.
“To be honest, in the beginning, I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense,’” Borralho said. He came around once he looked at the alternatives. “There’s no one else to fight. I’ve fought most of the guys in the top 15, I won most of them.” With nothing else available until January or February, he chose activity over waiting.
Belgaroui is unranked, though nobody should mistake that for harmless. He has finished all three of his UFC opponents with strikes, and Borralho has clearly done his homework. He pointed to Belgaroui’s kickboxing titles, his height and his command of distance, then flagged the detail that probably matters most for a grappler: “the thing that I notice on him, that he does very good against wrestlers.” Borralho described a fighter who gets back to his feet well, fights the hands constantly and uses the cage to his advantage.
Borralho’s list is self-serving, as every fighter’s list is, and leaving Chimaev off without a real argument will read as a provocation whether he meant it that way or not. But his logic holds up better than the usual media-day campaigning. He took a fight with more risk than reward because he refuses to sit on the bench, and his idea of having the contenders settle it among themselves is the cleanest path anyone has offered while Strickland and Imaov sort out the belt. None of that matters if a tall, 3-0 kickboxer who keeps getting up off the mat catches him at the Garden on Saturday.
