Reflecting on his attendance at last week’s UFC 276 International Fight Week extravaganza, he Tweeted:
“What a night last night was!!! First time watching UFC in a arena and I got emotional and goosebumps!!! Until the end of the year I will fight in front of a crowd like that…mark my words!”
Borralho’s second UFC contest this Saturday versus Armen Petrosyan at UFC Fight Night: Dos Anjos vs Fiziev will mark his fourth consecutive bout at the UFC APEX. Dating back to his two appearances on the 2021 season of Dana White’s Contender Series, the intimate Las Vegas venue that holds but a handful of fans has become Borralho’s home outside of São Luís, Brazil. But after this Saturday, he might be looking to move.
“It was amazing, man,” he recalls. “The energy and the crowd inside the arena was just amazing. I got very emotional when I got in the arena because I had pictured myself fighting there. I made a promise to myself that, in the name of Jesus, I’d be fighting there until the end of the year. I was really happy, full of energy. Jim Miller’s family was behind me, so when he won, everybody got emotional. It was a moment I will always remember and that I’ll talk about for a long time.
“When I pictured myself fighting in the UFC, it was never without a crowd. That happened because of everything that’s been going on in the world. But I was born for this. I was born for big audiences and to have that connection with them. I was born to be on the big stage.”