Khamzat Chimaev dominated Caio Borralho in resurfaced sparring footage ahead of rumored UFC 317 fight

Khamzat Chimaev’s sparring with Caio Borralho from a 2022 fight camp has resurfaced as the pair head towards a match-up this summer.

It appears that Dricus Du Plessis is injured and won’t be able to defend his middleweight title against Chimaev in the main event of UFC 317. As a result, Borralho has called out the Swede for a new fight that could even have an interim title on the line.

Since then, the pair have been going back-and-forth online, with Chimaev recently sharing footage of their sparring from three years ago. The full video has now re-emerged, seemingly showing a dominant round for the Swede.

RAZOR CLOSE: Khamzat Chimaev got dropped as top contender almost ruined his perfect record in 2022 acid testKhamzat Chimaev and Caio Borralho’s 2022 sparring re-emergesBack in fight week for UFC 279, Khamzat Chimaev and Caio Borralho got a chance to train together at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. At the time, Chimaev was preparing to face Nate Diaz in the weekend’s main event, while Borralho was on the following pay-per-view against Makhmud Muradov.

In the end, Chimaev missed weight by a whopping 7.5lb and he ended up facing Kevin Holland on short notice, winning quickly. During fight week, he got a chance to work with Borralho, who at the time was a division up at middleweight.

Footage was captured and shared on the UFC Embedded series’s first episode of the week showing the pair involved in ‘shark tank’ training. It appears that Chimaev is in complete control in the parts shown, although there is limited clips taken in as a coach speaks over it.

At one point as Chimaev holds Borralho down, he can be heard telling him “I’m not bully, brother. I make you champion. Everyone call me bully, I am the next champions.” Eventually, the way that Borralho ended up getting on top was when a coach took Chimaev’s back and made it a two-on-one.

Caio Borralho and Khamzat Chimaev have social media back-and-forthIt’s common knowledge that Khamzat Chimaev is not somebody who gets called out at welterweight or middleweight. He is considered the toughest fight in the division, and is undefeated at 14-0 thus far in his career.

However, that didn’t stop Borralho from boldly pushing for a fight between the pair when it emerged that he may have a free date in June. “I know a guy @ufc,” he wrote on X. “You know who to call.”

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLCHe later tweeted that: “Khamzat said yes! The only thing that makes sense is the Interim belt! This fight is gonna be bigger than him vs Dricus! Marks my words.”

“If we will fight hundred times, you will never win,” Chimaev wrote on one of Borralho’s many posts. “If somebody knows you know that bro.” The ‘Fighting Nerds’ star, for his part, replied: “If you say so, sign the contract and we will see!”