Kamaru Usman suggests one big change for Fighting Nerds to make after losses by Jean Silva and Caio Borralho

Former UFC champion Kamaru Usman believes the Fighting Nerds won’t win a UFC title until one significant change is made to their team.

It’s been a rough last few weeks for Brazil’s star-studded Fighting Nerds team featuring the trio of Caio Borralho, Jean Silva, and Carlos Prates. Borralho lost to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Paris earlier this month, and Silva was finished for the first time in his UFC tenure last weekend at Noche UFC in San Antonio.

Prates managed to bounce back from his first UFC defeat to Ian Machado Garry by knocking out Geoff Neal at UFC 319 last month. He’s scheduled to fight former UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards at UFC 322 later this year.

After the trio’s meteoric rise in the UFC this year, the hype has seemed to hit a plateau in recent weeks. But former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman believes he knows the key to getting the three fighters to a world championship fight.

Kamaru Usman suggests a big change for Caio Borralho, Jean Silva after lopsided losses

During a recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Usman suggested the Fighting Nerds should emphasize a more well-rounded approach to fighting.

“They have an incredible team, I think they could add to that team, and that’s probably someone to work on the wrestling,” Usman said.

“Having that wrestling background is something Caio Borralho could have utilized in getting those takedowns in that fight, which I think could have potentially helped him and blew that fight away. With Carlos Prates, the fight that he did lose to Ian Garry, of course Ian was really good at just moving away and then maybe drop down and get a takedown, control him. Then the Mauricio Ruffy fight, Saint Denis was just all over him. Once he got him down, he was able to punish him down there.

“So, I do think these guys would definitely benefit from a wrestling coach,” Usman continued. “We had Greg (Jones) at one point. We had Kenny Monday at one point. We’ve had Mike van Arsdale at one point. Our team, I think that our foundation was when we were the Blackzilians, it was hot. The one that they did very well is Rashad Evans made it a point for us to have a wrestling coach because obviously you know Rashad is a wrestler, as well. We had to have a wrestling coach because everyone knew our standup was so good at that time because of coach Henri Hooft. This is something that the Fighting Nerds can utilize, is getting a good wrestling coach out there.” (h/t MMA Junkie)

Usman and Prates could be on a collision course as both make strong cases for a welterweight title shot. Usman defeated Joaquin Buckley earlier this year and has repeatedly called for a shot at the Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev winner.