It’s all just part of the fight game, UFC Paris headliner Caio Borralho suggested this week.
Speaking at Wednesday’s media day in advance of Saturday’s event at the Accor Arena in Paris, France, Borralho touched on the trash talk between himself and opponent Nassourdine Imavov, after it was suggested the French star might have improved in that department.
“To be honest with you, this is just fight promotion. We need to make this entertaining for people to see this fight, and that’s what we did,” stated Borralho, who heads up Brazil’s Fighting Nerds team. “Before, Nassourdine, nobody didn’t even talk about him. He wasn’t a guy that was talking too much on social media, he didn’t have any kind of communication or anything like that.”
“I think he needs to thank me, because I made him do that.”
Borralho feels that the trash talk never strayed into the realm of disrespect. “The trash talk is just part of the business, just part of the show. I think we wanted to make this fight even more entertaining than it will be. And people now want to see this fight so much. I think our job is done. Right now, no more trash talk, no more talks, no more kidding. It’s just me and him in the cage, trying to kill each other, and the best man wins.”
Asked for his prediction for the bout, which could very well have title implications, Borralho was pretty clear. “Fourth round finish.”
Those title implications have the winner of Imavov vs. Borralho, and October’s Reinier de Ridder vs. Anthony Hernandez, all in the mix for a shot at new champ Khamzat Chimaev. When it was suggested that Caio Borralho might be the furtherst down on that list, Borralho scoffed.
“Bro, I’m 9-0 in the UFC. Undefeated. 10 years undefeated. 16 [fight] win streak. I just got a lot of high-level guys in the beginning of my career. I wasn’t a prospect getting guys with losing streaks, or guys that are almost getting out of the UFC. So I just think that you cannot trust in that news.”
And while he’s not in the top five right now, he expects to be soon.
“I won [against] a top five. When I won [against] Cannonier, he was a top five. And then I became a top five. Now the division is shaken a lot up, and now I’m top seven. I don’t care. On Saturday, after that on Tuesday, my name will be #2, because I’m beating Nassourdine Imavov.”
Watch the full UFC Paris media day appearance by Caio Borralho above.
