Sean Strickland has an explanation for Caio Borralho’s UFC Paris loss.
The former middleweight champion recently trained with Borralho and he doesn’t believe the Brazilian standout was at his best for Saturday’s fight as he was simultaneously preparing to be the backup for the UFC 319 main event between Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus Du Plessis. Borralho successfully made weight for the Aug. 16 pay-per-view, but was not needed as Chimaev and Du Plessis made it to fight night without issue.
Looking back,
Strickland believes cutting weight twice in such a short period of time took away from Borralho’s training for his fight with Nassourdine Imavov, who defeated Borralho via unanimous decision in the UFC Paris main event.
“Caio is my buddy, but he’s an idiot,” Strickland wrote on Twitter. “He trained with us and was useless.
“Me: What’s wrong with you?
“Caio: I’m cutting, I’m an alternate.
“So you’re giving up four weeks of your camp cutting weight twice while having a fight coming up? Whoever told you to do that, please hit him.”
Strickland elaborated further in response to commenters, saying he was so frustrated with Borralho’s decision that he “wanted to hit him.”
“I didn’t say anything because I wanted to keep his spirits up, but he really took some bad advice from someone,” Strickland added. “That fight wasn’t him. It was missing four weeks of training cutting weight twice.”
“What do you think happens when you kill your body so much in such a short period of time?” Strickland said, replying to another commenter. “Exactly that.”
Borralho entered Saturday with a 7-0 record in the UFC and was looking to make a statement that he was the No. 1 contender to challenge Chimaev next for the middleweight title. While Borralho was competitive against Imavov, the decision was rarely in doubt and Imavov went on to win the five-round contest via scores of 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46.
Imavov has now won five straight fights (excluding a no-contest against Chris Curtis) since losing a decision to Strickland in a light heavyweight bout January 2023. He called out Chimaev after his win, but matchmakers likely won’t make a decision on the matter until middleweight contenders Reiner de Ridder and Anthony Hernandez meet in the main event of UFC Vancouver on Oct. 18.
