Rising middleweight Caio Borralho made a huge leap toward title contention Saturday, defeating Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 48-46) in the UFC Fight Night main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Borralho solidified the victory with a massive fifth round in which he nearly knocked out Cannonier in the final two minutes. Borralho dropped Cannonier with a left hand and pounced on him, landing ferocious ground-and-pound shots that arguably should’ve forced a referee stoppage and kept the judges out of the fight. However, Cannonier survived until the final horn.
All three judges gave Borralho a 10-8 in Round 5, one of three unanimous rounds. Borralho took Round 1 and Cannonier took Round 2 on all three scorecards.