Caio Borralho shares biggest advantage over UFC 319 title winner Khamzat Chimaev

Caio Borralho believes he has a distinct advantage over newly crowned UFC Middleweight Champion, Khamzat Chimaev.

Chimaev was a betting favorite going into his UFC 319 title fight against Dricus du Plessis. Many experts were baffled that the odds were in Chimaev’s favor by a decent margin. As it turns out, the oddsmakers were correct. “Borz” had nearly 22 minutes of control time, per FightMetric. His grappling was too much for du Plessis to handle, and he captured the 185-pound gold in a one-sided decision victory.

Borralho was in the crowd to witness UFC 319, and he spoke to Mike Bohn of MMAJunkie.com following the event. Borralho discussed why he feels he has an advantage over Chimaev.

“For me, it’s the same – I always see him as the same,” Borralho said. “He’s a phenomenal athlete, very strong. His wrestling is high, high level. It’s almost impossible to scramble with him because he does that since he was nine years old. He does scrambles all his life. I don’t think that’s the way. The same thing. I spent one month in his training camp when he was at All Stars, and I know very well how he works, his system and everything.

“I have an advantage between all the middleweight fighters: I’m the one that has an advantage to beat him because I know exactly what he’s doing and what is his system and the steps he goes through and how to deny those steps. I’m very respectful for Khamzat. He’s like a brother to me. But at this time, it is the level of competition. It’s me and him.”

Borralho has a pivotal fight coming up against Nassourdine Imavov. The two will collide in the UFC Paris main event. The winner might be able to secure a shot at Chimaev’s middleweight gold with an impressive performance.