Caio Borralho took inspiration from Conor McGregor’s fighting style.
Unbeaten in the UFC, the rising middleweight is on an 11-fight winning streak. Borralho (14-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) cites former two-division champions Georges St-Pierre and McGregor as inspirations, and says he even changed his striking stance because of McGregor.
“I was orthodox then I changed to southpaw watching him,” Borralho said on the “Fitz Nation” podcast. “Because of Conor, I was like, ‘Man, I need to be southpaw. I need to train southpaw.’ So, I started training only southpaw for years and years. Now I’m more southpaw than orthodox because of him.”
Borralho faces Abus Magomedov (25-5-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 231 main card at Ginasio Do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo. The event streams on ESPN+.
Borralho has taken the necessary steps to reach his championship goal by training with the likes of middleweight champ Sean Strickland and undefeated Khamzat Chimaev, but he wants to leave his mark on the sport in a specific way.
“For sure I want to be a world champion,” Borralho said. “That’s for sure. That’s the main goal when I started MMA is to be a world champion. … I don’t want to be the greatest pound-for-pound king or the greatest of all time. I just want to be remembered as one of the most cerebral fighters in the game, one of the smartest fighters just like St-Pierre. If I’m remembered just like him, I’m happy with it.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 231.
UFC’s Caio Borralho explains how watching Conor McGregor turned him into a southpaw
