Caio Borralho Wants Any Top-10 Name at UFC 334 in New York

Caio Borralho is cleared to train, cleared to fight, and he's not being shy about the address. The Brazilian middleweight wants a spot on UFC 334 in New York on Nov. 14, and he says he's after anyone in the top 10 to keep his climb toward the belt moving. Ranked #5 at 185 and sitting at 8-1 inside the octagon, Borralho reckons he's one or two wins away from a shot at gold.

The layoff wasn't by choice. A rib injury forced surgery and scrapped a booking against Joe Pyfer that had been slated for UFC 330 — the first time Borralho has had to pull out of a fight since arriving in the UFC in 2021. He told MMA Fighting he's now around 90 to 95 percent, back to full training across grappling, wrestling and striking, and figures a proper camp starts in three or four weeks. Madison Square Garden is the target, and the date lines up.

The Case He's Making

Borralho's résumé does most of the talking. He rattled off seven straight wins before dropping a decision to Nassourdine Imavov, then rebounded in March with a unanimous-decision win over Reinier de Ridder — a result that's aged nicely given de Ridder went on to face Roman Dolidze. Overall Borralho is 18-2 with five knockouts and four submissions, the kind of well-rounded profile that plays in a division starved for fresh contenders.

He described the cancelled Pyfer bout as frustrating but said the downtime let him sharpen a few things and rest his body. Pyfer's stock has only risen since — he stopped former champ Israel Adesanya to push his win streak to four, handing the ex-titleholder a second-round TKO. Borralho says he'd happily run that fight back but isn't fixated on it. Brendan Allen, the #4 middleweight at 27-7 with 14 submissions, is another name he'd take. Whoever the UFC picks, he says he'll sign.

Where the Title Sits

The belt itself is a mess of loose ends. Sean Strickland upset Khamzat Chimaev by split decision in May to take the strap and hand Chimaev the first loss of his career, and Chimaev is now lobbying for an immediate rematch. Borralho, who has trained with both men, said the takedown and the top-control problems were predictable — Strickland is hard to hold down and mentally sharp off his back — but that watching Chimaev stand and trade punches on even terms genuinely surprised him.

As for who's next, Borralho isn't buying the Chimaev rematch push. He argued Imavov has earned the shot, pointing to the Frenchman's prior short-notice meeting with Strickland at light heavyweight. Failing that, he sees himself, Pyfer and Allen as the logical pool at the top of the division — a group that could sort itself out and produce the next challenger. Borralho just wants a name on the contract. Then, he says, the answer is yes.