Preview: UFC Paris ‘Imavov vs. Borralho’

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It feels as though the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division has been in a strange place for nearly a decade, but Saturday in Paris is the harbinger of a fun new era at 185 pounds. Since Luke Rockhold dethroned Chris Weidman at UFC 194, ushering in a period of several years during which nobody seemed to want to hold onto the belt, the division has alternated between chaos and stagnation. Israel Adesanya managed to impose stability during his dazzling three-year title reign, but a side effect of his dominance was that he exhausted the pool of available contenders to the point that the only viable options were to go on an endless rematch tour or try his hand at light heavyweight.

The result, by the time Adesanya finally coughed up the belt for good two or three years ago, was a middleweight Top 15 full of excellent fighters…most of whom were heading for their late 30s and had already fought one another. A division, in other words, desperately in need of some fresh blood. In contenders like Imavov and Borralho, it now has it: a couple of skilled, young 185-pounders who have been close to flawless over the last three years are still on the rise.



Imavov-Borralho is about as good as it gets for a Fight Night headliner, featuring a native star as the A-side of a well-matched bout with immediate title implications. Beneath that main event Benoit St. Denis and Mauricio Ruffy complete a “France vs. Fighting Nerds” doubleheader atop the lineup, former Bellator MMA great Patricio Freire endeavors to keep overcoming Father Time (and whatever he did to piss off UFC matchmakers) and the rest of the main card matchups feature hot prospects and/or guaranteed carnage.

Here is the preview for the UFC Paris main card:

Middleweights

Nassourdine Imavov (16-4, 1 NC) vs. Caio Borralho (17-1, 1 NC)

Odds: Borralho (-130); Imavov (+110)

Imavov’s rise has been a bit of a slow burn, but he has truly hit his stride since a decision loss to Sean Strickland two and a half years ago. “The Sniper” has been impressive enough that when his UFC 289 clash with Chris Curtis ended in a no contest after several inadvertent head butts, the promotion didn’t bother running it back and instead chose to book Imavov more or less as if he had won, placing him in a Fight Night headliner against Roman Dolidze in his next outing.

The 30-year-old has rewarded the UFC’s faith by rattling off four straight wins, three of them in main events. He has looked better than ever, a case of fine-tuning rather than reinventing his game. I joked on the preview show that Imavov has a dial on the back of his head that sweeps between “France” and “Dagestan,” and his success depends on setting that dial appropriately for the opponent and situation.

There is some truth to that: Imavov usually presents as a tall, athletic kickboxer who is most comfortable at middle-to-long range and a steady pace, but he also possesses versatile offensive wrestling, heavy top-position grappling, and the strength and meanness to make people’s lives miserable against the cage. He is at his most effective when he blends those phases of his game proactively, rather than only doing so when forced by his opponent.

As he has grown in experience and confidence, he has gotten better at doing that, and the result has been the current win streak, which has seen him take on four straight ranked opponents with very different skill sets and dispatch them in mostly one-sided fashion. The closest he has come to losing a fight during that time was Round 4 against Dolidze, where a bizarrely flagrant kick to the head of his grounded foe led to a point deduction and could easily have resulted in a disqualification—not helped by the fact that Imavov immediately started jawing with Curtis in Dolidze’s corner.

Borralho’s path to the UFC Paris main event has been both more direct and more dazzling. Entering the promotion in 2021 through Dana White's Contender Series, where he somewhat surprisingly had to fight twice in six weeks, “The Natural” has won his first seven fights in the UFC, extending his overall unbeaten streak to a ridiculous 17 straight, to earn this contenders’ match.

The raw numbers of that win streak do not do justice to how impressive the 32-year-old has been. While five of his seven UFC wins have been by decision and none of those wins were clean sweeps, he has looked largely dominant, and has not been in serious danger of losing any of them. Combined with his quirky, effusive charm—Borralho is the original, and still arguably the nerdiest, Fighting Nerd—it has been enough to elevate him to headliner as well as contender status.

Borralho is a fantastic athlete, powerful, explosive and fluid, and he makes full use of his physical tools on the feet as well as on the ground. As a striker, he throws hard one-twos, huge hooks and a variety of hard kicks to all levels. His wrestling is more effective and opportunistic than technical, but once he has an opponent on the canvas, he is a nightmare, softening foes up with frightening ground-and-pound while advancing position deliberately, then taking the back in a flash and looking for chokes.

The few quibbles to be found with Borralho’s game—and considering he hasn’t lost a fight in 10 years, this is nitpicking—are in his striking defense and his gas tank. Borralho’s head is still very hittable for an elite fighter, as Jared Cannonier showed, and he tends to fade somewhat late in fights. The wheels never completely fall off, but his musculature and high pace often leave him visibly slowed in Round 3 and later.

In a fight this closely matched, those minor flaws might make the difference between victory and defeat. Imavov’s accurate hands, long reach and disciplined range management on the feet should be well suited to a stick-and-move approach against Borralho early in the fight. Meanwhile, his increasing confidence and poise in the championship rounds—he bounced back from the near disaster against Dolidze to win Round 5, and finished Cannonier in the fourth—seem tailor made to win going away, or even to rally if Borralho jumps on him early.

It is understandable that Borralho is the slight favorite here, and if one of these fighters closes things out early in spectacular fashion, it’s more likely to be the Brazilian, but the pick here is for Imavov to eke out the decision win in a fun fight that does not hurt either man’s stock too much.



Jump To »
Imavov vs. Borralho
St. Denis vs. Ruffy
Bukauskas vs. Craig
Oki vs. Jones
McKee vs. Sola
Freire vs. Keita
The Prelims