Caio Borralho flew to South Africa to find Dricus Du Plessis, claiming the champion has not been responding to his callouts. Du Plessis immediately responded on social media, inviting Borralho to his gym for a sparring session on Friday morning at 9 AM, offering to film it if desired. Du Plessis told Borralho to stop acting like a little boy and just sign a fight contract. The champion questioned whether Borralho's name is even being discussed as a potential next opponent. Borralho countered by pressing Du Plessis to sign the fight contract and challenged him to prove he is truly a man by showing up to spar.
Caio Borralho took his middleweight rivalry campaign to an unusual extreme, flying to South Africa in person to confront UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis after claiming the champion had been ignoring his callouts.
Borralho, 33, fights out of Brazil for The Fighting Nerds and carries an 18-2-0 record in the middleweight division, where he is currently ranked fourth. The southpaw stands six-foot-one with a 75-inch reach and has built his reputation on precise striking, connecting at a 56 percent accuracy rate while landing 3.44 significant strikes per minute.
Du Plessis, 32, is the reigning middleweight champion and holds the number-two divisional ranking alongside a top-ten pound-for-pound position at seventh in the world. The South African, who fights for Team CIT, owns a 23-3-0 professional record and operates from a switch stance. Standing six-foot-one with a 76-inch reach, he lands 5.18 significant strikes per minute and supplements his offense with 2.22 takedowns per 15 minutes.
Du Plessis responded swiftly on social media after Borralho's arrival, extending an invitation to his gym for a Friday morning sparring session at 9 AM and offering to have the session filmed. The champion simultaneously told Borralho to stop behaving like a child and to simply sign the fight contract, questioning whether Borralho was even being considered as his next opponent. Borralho fired back, urging Du Plessis to put pen to paper on a contract and framing a willingness to spar as a test of the champion's character.
Why it matters
- Du Plessis holds the middleweight title while Borralho sits fourth in the division, making this a legitimate title-contender dispute
- A potential matchup would pit Borralho's high-accuracy southpaw striking against Du Plessis's high-volume, switch-stance attack
- The public standoff raises the visibility of both fighters but no fight contract has been confirmed
