SUPER LUTAS has just launched a product for you, the combat sports fan: 'It's Time!', a podcast featuring exclusive interviews with the biggest names in MMA and boxing. Just visit the SUPER LUTAS YouTube channel to check it out. 'It's Time!' is sponsored by 'BK8', a sports betting platform that offers a welcome bonus of 100% up to R$500 and a risk-free first bet.
The choice of the name 'It's Time!' is a tribute to the old 'MMA Brasil' podcast. It references the famous catchphrase used by presenter, voice actor and businessman Bruce Buffer, who for years has always used the catchphrase before the main fight of the UFC night begins.
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Caio Borralho opens the proceedings of 'It's Time!'
Known for his charisma and social media presence, Caio Borralho, from Maranhão , is proud to represent Brazil on the global MMA stage. With a record of 17 wins and one loss, the middleweight fighter (up to 83,9kg) is undefeated in the UFC, with seven consecutive victories.
For 'It's Time', Caio was interviewed right after UFC 310 in Las Vegas by SUPER LUTAS reporter Velber Viana. You can check out some excerpts from the chat below, or you can watch the full interview by clicking here.
Dream of being a fighter
Caio says that, until the moment she made her decision, she had been living a quiet life in São Luís. She was close to her family, which included watching her grandparents grow old and her younger siblings grow up. Her routine included teaching subjects such as mathematics and chemistry, as well as judo for children. She also surfed and studied industrial chemistry at college.
“I had a quiet life, you know? What I gave up everything for, which is everything to me, is my family, right? I gave up being close to them, I gave up watching my grandparents grow old, my younger brothers grow up, and it was a choice, right? I had to give up all that. When I lived in São Luís, I had a very quiet life, like that. I taught math and chemistry, I taught judo to children aged three to six, I surfed, I studied industrial chemistry at a federal university. I had my little car that my mother had given me, when I turned 19, when I passed the entrance exam, she gave me a car, which I still have today,” said the fighter.
However, the opportunity to pursue a new dream in São Paulo came unexpectedly, and although it was something new to him, he felt he needed to do something to achieve it. So, ten years ago, Borralho made the decision to abandon his life in São Luís: college, his job as a teacher and even the car his mother had given him.
“I had a quiet life there, man. And when the opportunity came to go to São Paulo, to pursue this dream, which was a new dream for me, but I knew I had to do something to pursue it. And then I decided. Ten years ago, I abandoned everything, all of that, college, I didn’t graduate there, you know, in college, I was still in about three semesters, family, money I earned from math and chemistry classes, I also abandoned my car, I left it there too, so I abandoned everything, but mainly my family. My mother always worked hard to give me the best of the best, to put me in good schools, to take English classes… I see in her an example of a hard-working woman who goes after what she wants”, he concluded.
Caio Borralho tells his story on the podcast 'It's Time'. Photo: Reproduction
Snake at school
Borralho also told an unusual story from his childhood, when he took a boa constrictor to school. He described how, together with a street friend, he raised the snake in Maranhão and, at a certain point, decided to take the animal to school.
“I’m crazy, I once took a snake to school, a boa constrictor, imagine, that story goes on to this day, you know, from Maranhão, in the biggest school in Maranhão, ‘Reino Infantil’ I took a boa constrictor, I raised a boa constrictor with a friend there, you know, from the street, from the street and stuff, from the neighborhood, and there was a day when I was able to keep it, there was no aquarium, I said, ‘ah, I’ll take it to school’. Like, thank God I found sports to burn off energy, even so, there was a lot of craziness in this head here, and, man, the guy I’ve become today, well, I think that for my mother it’s the greatest victory of all”.
Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland title fight
When asked about a title fight in the middleweight division (up to 83,9kg), Caio argues that Sean Strickland has more experience and more fighting game, which could be a deciding factor. He acknowledges that Dricus has very strong hands, which requires caution, especially since a well-placed punch can compromise the rest of the fight.
“Both will be better adapted there, I think it will be a fight that could even be better than their last fight, but still, even though I've hit the wall every time I've bet against Dricus, he's been beating everyone, this time I'm going against him again. I think Strickland has more game, he has more time to react there, you have to be careful there for some of Dricus' hands that are very strong, I think he has a very heavy hand, so be careful there so that a hand like that doesn't compromise the rest of the fight, like the last time it was a hand in the eye there”.
Reserve in the fight
The fighter believes there is a real possibility of being chosen as a reserve fighter for UFC 311. He justifies this opinion by pointing out that, among the top 5 and 6 fighters in the division, two already have fights scheduled: Israel Adesanya and Nassourdine Imavov , which prevents them from being reserves for the event.
Caio continues his analysis explaining that Robert Whittaker , another strong name in the division, is injured and therefore cannot be considered for the reserve role. This situation further reduces the viable options to fill that role, opening up space for other fighters like him.
“I think so, because the others in the top 5 or 6, two of them have scheduled fights, Adesanya and Imavov, will fight others, they can’t be reserves. And Whittaker is injured, so he can’t be reserves. And there’s Chimaev, but I think Chimaev, because of his size, I don’t think he’s a guy they’ll put on reserve.”
Rise of 'The Fighting Nerds'
Caio Borralho receives an award along with Pablo Sucupira; 'The Fighting Nerds' was elected 'Academy of the Year' in 2024. Photo: Personal archive.
“I’ve always been a nerd, right? At school and everything, so I’ve always seen things in a more analytical way. But that’s also something that, man, is very much influenced by Pablo, especially, right? The Fighting Nerds team thing, we realized, he realized that a fighter has to fight calmly. Not like everyone thinks, right? Full of adrenaline and everything. That’s a Fighting Nerds philosophy, that’s how he passed it on to me. So I was already full of emotion, but I knew how to analyze things in a very analytical way, like that. Studying fighting, in an analytical way, I would take a little piece of paper, write it down, like I studied math, chemistry. And he came up with this idea of… You have to be calm, you have to be relaxed, right? And, man, studying all your opponents, every year and everything, so it’s something that of course I have a little bit inside me, but it’s something that Pablo put in, especially in the whole team. It's something that if we're going to give credit for this, of being calm while fighting in a more cerebral way, it has to be Pablo, he's the one who taught us all this.”
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