[autotag]Caio Borralho[/autotag] sat in the corner of a São Paulo gym and glanced up at the clock on the wall. The time for the meetup was near, but there was no sign of his man yet. Fighters filed in, ready for their training sessions.
Behind them entered a smaller man. He didn't strike Borralho as a fighter. Borralho wasn't sure exactly who he was looking for, but this couldn't be the guy.
"Are you Caio? Are you here to train?" he asked. Borralho nodded and replied, "Yeah, I came to train." Borralho followed the man, questioning the decision making that led him to this point.
It was 2014 and a few weeks prior to the meetup with the man who would change the course of his life, Borralho asked friend and fellow fighter Bruno Murata how he could fast-track his striking game. At that time, Borralho was solely a grappler. His standup game was novice, so Murata recommended a mutual friend, Pablo Sucupira, a muay Thai competitor and boxing specialist.
Wrong. What surprised Borralho more than Sucupira's unassuming appearance was the beatdown he dished out during their first training session. Borralho remembers peeling himself up off the mat, depleted after just a few minutes.
The hard training session that day marked the start of a beautiful bond between teacher and pupil. Initially, Sucupira had one foot in the boxing world and Borralho cross-training with Demian Maia's team. But as time passed, Sucupira became Borralho's go-to coach, and Borralho became Sucupira's star student.
Eventually, Sucupira turned his full attention to MMA and decided to start his own gym. Borralho, of course, went with him. The Fighting Nerds team now consists of one dozen coaches and dozens more fighters.
But at the start, there was just two men. Their gym, formally named Combat Club São Paulo, was literally built with a hammer and a nail by Sucupira. " The team slowly gained more members.
Maia's grappling coach, Wagner Mota, jumped on board, but Sucupira wanted an MMA-centric mind too. So he sought out Flavio Alvaro, a Brazilian legend with more than 70 fights. The MMA landscape is full of "Pitbulls" and "Lionhearts.
" Sucupira and Borralho refused trying to fabricate faux street cred. They were unapologetically nerdy. Growing up, Borralho loved school.
He taught math and chemistry to peers for money. Sucupira worked a desk job as a copywriter. Of all the Fighting Nerd branding angles, none is more distinct than the signature glasses sported by the fighters and corners, and even occasionally in-cage interviewers Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier.
Even the UFC, with its generally restrictive policy against props, approved the glasses after some convincing by Sucupira. " Unanimously, the glasses were a hit. Sucupira buys hundreds of pairs of lens-less black plastic glasses at a time.
The signature piece of tape on each pair, Sucupira adds by hand. The best thing about the glasses, explained Borralho (who admits he wore taped glasses in high school), is how it's shown them how much they are respected across the globe after years being ridiculed for their name and appearance on the Brazilian regional scene. The Fighting Nerds breakthrough moment finally came in 2021.
Seven years after the journey began, Borralho received an offer to compete for a UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series. In Sucupira's coaching methodology, fighting is a problem needing to be solved. A proponent of formulating game plans specific to individual opponents, Sucupira instilled in Borralho a mentality of fighting smarter, not tougher.
When Borralho fought Aaron Jeffery on the series, he solved the equation ...
but only part of it. The fight wasn't exciting enough for Dana White, who passed on extending a contract offer. The shuttle ride back to the hotel was quiet until Borralho perked up.
The response dots appeared. Maynard was typing. "Awesome," Maynard wrote back.
The gamble paid off. Maynard circled back a few weeks later and offered Borralho a short notice fill-in spot, up a weight class vs. Jesse Murray.
It was an easy yes. This time, however, the approach needed tweaking. Excitement was a necessary part of the equation.
Borralho finished Murray in Round 1, and the UFC contract came, a massive moment for the entire squad of Nerds. Three years later, it's another milestone. Saturday's headliner between Borralho and Jared Cannonier will mark the team's first main event.
The Nerds enter with a tremendous amount of momentum. Although Borralho is the unofficial captain, other clubhouse leaders have emerged. Fans have become attached to the fighters – and their personalities.
" More than the glasses or their in-cage success, the team is tied by the message they want to send. It's time for nerds to get their revenge – and inspire. Beyond Borralho and the cigarette-smoking sniper Prates and the barking Silva, there's [autotag]Mauricio Ruffy[/autotag], a powerful striker who already has fans buzzing after just one UFC appearance.
There's [autotag]Bruna Brasil[/autotag], who recently beat Molly McCann. There's veteran [autotag]Thiago Moises[/autotag], who joined the team after years at American Top Team. There's UFC lightweight [autotag]Kaynan Kruschewsky[/autotag].
Sucupira and Borralho say to also keep an eye out for unsigned prospects Icaro Brito, Geovanis Palacios, Natalia Alves, Felipe Douglas, and Fabricio Azevedo, who could make a splash in years to come. Sucupira and Borralho constructed a gym. They crafted a mentality.
They formed a team around them and built a culture. Borralho gets emotional reflecting on the journey now that it's paying off. " And perhaps someday, Sucupira and Borralho will break out the hammers and nails once more – to hang up something special.
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