Ranked UFC middleweights Paul Craig and Caio Borralho met in the cage to open the UFC 301 PPV card.
With his outdated but thrilling grappling style that relies on winning from his back, Paul Craig tried to stay in the rankings at #13 after losing his last outing. He faced #14 Caio Borralho, a Brazilian with a much more modern and calm grappling style, one focusing on top-half guard and back takes. However, when grapplers meet up it often leads to a striking duel, and in that realm Borralho dominated Craig en route to a knockout.
When Craig pulled guard to begin the fight, Borralho was loathe to enter Paul’s guard and snapped his head back with a big punch in the feet early. The diverse attacks of Caio simply were too much for Craig, who did not so more than pull guard and threw some kicks with little real intent behind them. The rest of the round was just Borralho out-striking Paul Craig comfortably.
Borralho jabbed Craig up more in the second round and then hurt him badly with a right hand to a flying knee one minute in. Craig survived and Caio let him stand up, but Borralho’s striking continued to keep him comfortably ahead. Caio began a forward-pushing combination assault on Paul and chased the Scot to the fence, where he landed a left hand which planted Craig facedown on the canvas, out cold.
The biggest win of Caio Borralho’s MMA career was his sixth straight victory and kept him undefeated in the UFC. Doing it in front of his home crowd made it that much more sweeter, as did the adding of a highlight to his reel.
Official Result: Caio Borralho def. Paul Craig by Knockout (left straight) Round 2, 2:10
