Borralho will take on French contender Nassourdine Imavov at the Accor Arena in the French capital this Saturday night in a fight that could potentially catapult the winner into a title fight with newly-crowned middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.
The fight with Imavov is one that Borralho has been chasing for a while, and now he’s got it locked in, he’s excited to rise to the challenge as he takes on the division’s number-two contender in his opponent’s home country.
“Man, this is the biggest fight of my career,” Borralho told Stake.com ahead of fight night in France.
“Finally, after seven fights in the UFC and seven wins, it’s time to go for the number-one contender fight.
“This is the fight I have wanted for so long, and Imamov has been avoiding it for so long. Now that it’s scheduled, I don’t care if it’s in France or anywhere else in the world, I’m just so excited to showcase my work. I’m very excited, very happy, all of my family and my team will be there and I’m excited to showcase my skills.”
A four-way ‘fight for the right’
The middleweight division is in an interesting position, with four contenders all vying for the opportunity to be the first challenger to Chimaev’s title reign.
Borralho and Imavov form two of that quartet, and they’ll face off this weekend, with the other two contenders, Reinier De Ridder and Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandes, set to do battle in the main event of UFC Vancouver on October 18.
It means that the UFC hasn’t given any definitive guarantees to Borralho that a win will earn him a title shot, but the Brazilian said that he can control the narrative by delivering a dominant performance on Saturday night.
“No, they didn’t give me their word as this being 100 percent a (number-one) contender fight. They booked ‘Fluffy’ vs RDR and we’ll see who their next contender is,” he explained.
“I think they wanted to put some pressure on us to deliver some great fights. I think that if I go and have a boring fight and win, but then ‘Fluffy’ goes and has an amazing fight, then I think he would get the title shot.
“But I don’t have to worry about that because my fight itself is already an entertaining fight. Two strikers, with knockout power, going against each other, so there’s no way this fight is going to be boring. I think I’ll finish him in the third or fourth round, and if it’s an exciting fight, then I’ll be next.
“I’ve been the backup fighter, made weight, then they offered me to fight Imamov on International Fight Week, and I said yes. I said yes to Paolo Costa (and) Robert Whittaker as well, and I think they’ll consider all of this.”
Borralho views Hernandez as the division’s other main contender
When asked about the other middleweight contender matchup, Borralho said he fancied Hernandez to get the job done in similar style to his dominant win over Roman Dolidze earlier this summer.
“I was a little bit surprised, yeah!” he admitted.
“I knew it was a fight that was a bit more in favour of ‘Fluffy’ because of his well-rounded game. But the way he did it… Respectfully, he made Dolidze look like a kid. He did it in a dominant fashion and he chose when he was going to do it. Dolidze was done by the second round, but Fluffy looked like he was playing with his food.
“I think it’s going to be the same as Dolidze. Dolidze has some better striking than RDR, but they are similar. RDR got tired after 1.5 rounds against Whittaker, and if you get tired like that against Fluffy, he’s going to maul you. I think it’ll be the same fight.”
