Caio Borralho has received some valuable advice from Sean Strickland heading into the first Ultimate Fighting Championship main event of his career.
Borralho will headline UFC on ESPN 62 opposite veteran middleweight contender Jared Cannonier on Aug. 24 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Originally a part of The Fighting Nerds team in Brazil, Borralho is training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas for his upcoming bout.
Borralho has the added guidance of one of the biggest names in the gym, Strickland, who has previously faced Cannonier. Strickland suffered a razor-thin split decision loss against “The Killa Gorilla” in a UFC Fight Night headliner in December 2022.
Drawing from that loss, Strickland has advised Borralho to put together a corner who can scream loud. Strickland seemingly believes that while he landed the more effective punches on Cannonier, it was the consistent applause from his opponent’s corner that swayed the judges scorecards.
“The best advice that Sean gave me is, you need to have a good corner that screams a lot,” Borralho recently told The Schmo. “Because in their fight, he punched a lot, Strickland. But other [Cannonier’s] punches were slippery and his corner was always screaming like, ‘Good one, good one.’ So maybe it got the judges the wrong way. So I’m just gonna make sure I’m gonna have a good corner and just go there, pick my shots and keep my distance, do my game. I know I’m skilled enough to beat him. So I’m just gonna go there and do what I do best, win fights.”
Borralho has also gained valuable experience training against Strickland, who is known for his relentlessly hard sparring. In addition to sparring, “The Natural” hails Strickland as a great teammate who has now taken up a leadership role at Xtreme Couture. Strickland is even known to clean the mats after practice.
“Great experience, you know,” Borralho said. “Everybody know Sean, how hard he spars, how he push his friends in the gym. Actually, he’s a very good friend in the gym, he push you up all the time. So I think it’s always a good sparring when you challenge yourself against one of the best guys in the world… [Strickland cleaning the mats after practice] is the example of a champion. He’s a true leader in Xtreme Couture. He’s always screaming with everybody, pushing the guys, he’s a good guy, I like him.”
