After scrambling to safe a primary occasion for UFC Vegas 96 later this month, the Final Combating Championship brass lastly booked one, a middleweight encounter between no. 5 ranked former title challenger Jared Cannonier (17-7) and no. 12 ranked Caio Borralho (16-1).
UFC Vegas 96 is to go down on August 24, 2024, dwell from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cannonier is coming into this headliner contemporary off his latest headline look when he confronted no. 4 ranked Nassourdine Imavov, a contest he was finally TKO’d in spherical 4 of, although the stoppage didn’t sit effectively with most of us. Cannonier was definitely surprised, however he by no means hit the canvas and appeared to have recovered effectively by time referee Jason Herzog stepped in to cease the combat.
Going into that combat Cannonier was 7-2 throughout 9 fights since dropping all the way down to the middleweight division, solely shedding to former UFC middleweight champions Robert Whittaker (UD) and Israel Adesanya (UD) in that point, the latter of which was a title shot.
His seven victories at 185 lbs come over former WSOF two-division champion David Department (TKO), former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (TKO), former Cage Warriors middleweight champion Jack Hermansson (TKO), TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum (UD), longtime middleweight contender Derek Brunson (KO), future, now former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland (SD), and former VFC welterweight champion Marvin Vettori (UD).
Cannonier can also be tied with former champions Vitor Belfort and Conor McGregor, or simply McGregor if you happen to take into account solely the trendy period, as the one fighters in UFC historical past to safe knockout victories in three completely different divisions.
Borralho alternatively, following back-to-back wins on Dana White’s Contender Collection in 2021, has been excellent to date into his promotional tenure, successful all six fights he’s had contained in the octagon with victories over the likes of Gadzhi Omargadzhiev (UD), Armen Petrosyan (UD), Makhmud Muradov (UD), Michal Oleksiejczuk (rear bare choke), Abus Magomedov (UD), and Paul Craig (KO).
This can be a basic striker versus grappler match up; Cannonier being one of the crucial highly effective specimens in middleweight historical past, and Borralho boasting a BJJ black belt with some actually stellar wrestling to associate with it.
Who wins this middleweight primary occasion happening at UFC Vegas 96?
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