Makhmud Muradov vs Caio Borralho Prediction: Defense Troubles

On October 22, the most high-profile UFC tournament will be held on Fighting Island in Abu Dhabi (UAE). In one of the preliminary card bout the fighter from Uzbekistan, Makhmud Muradov, will meet a Brazilian, Caio Borralho.

It will take place in the middleweight category. None of the opponents are the ranking pretenders of this division. In bookmaker's betting odds, Caio Borrallo is the favorite.

Muradov is the brightest knockout fighter. No surprise here. He came to MMA from kickboxing, where he was the WKN champion in his time. As for mixed martial arts, Makhmud was the champion of the XFN promotion before entering the UFC.

After fourteen straight wins (including three in the UFC), Muradov unexpectedly lost, being a decent favorite in the bookmakers' eyes. Surprisingly, Gerald Meerschaert (the same one who flew into oblivion from Khamzat Chimaev's first punch) suddenly took a standup fight with Makhmud and, more than that, outboxed him, knocked him down and choked him out.

Borralho got into the UFC with two solid wins over Russian fighters Gadzhi Omargadzhiev and Armen Petrosyan, and before that, he won on Dana White's Contender Series. The Brazilian is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He is terrific on the ground and outclassed his previous opponents in this aspect (we have not seen his other bouts, but we suspect it was the same).

Makhmud has some obvious problems on the ground and defending against take-downs, and the Brazilian knows it. It's unlikely that Borralho will want to fight in the standup, and if he does, he'll still put the fight down at the first opportunity. In any case, he has room to maneuver, but it will be harder for Muradov. His task is to crush, to stun, but the thing is that his opponent will be ready for it.

That's why we think that bookmaker's odds, where the Uzbek fighter is the underdog, are pretty justified.