Nerds of the world unite. Your hero is back.

Rising Brazilian middleweight Caio Borralho, who'd already climbed to No. 12 in the world on the strength of six straight octagonal victories, returned to the proving ground again on Saturday night with an eye on an even more significant uptick at 185 pounds.

The glasses-wearing 31-year-old, who represents the "Fighting Nerds" gym, faced fifth-ranked former title challenger Jared Cannonier atop the main card portion of an 11-bout show from the UFC's Apex home facility in Las Vegas.

Borralho was 16-1 in a career that stretches back to 2014 and hadn't lost since a three-rounder in a Brazilian-based promotion in 2015. He reached the radar with a pair of wins on Dana White's Contender Series in 2021 and had fought most recently on the UFC 301 show in May, stopping veteran Paul Craig in two rounds.

Cannonier, who turned 40 in March, debuted in the UFC in 2015 and dropped a unanimous five-round decision to then-champ Israel Adesanya at UFC 276 two years ago. He'd gone 2-1 in three fights since, defeating Sean Strickland (SD 5) and Marvin Vettori (UD 5) before losing in four rounds to Nassourdine Imavov on a Fight Night show in June.

The B/R combat team was in position to take in the show and deliver a real-time list of its definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.

Winner: Leveling Up

Caio Borralho will never forget his Saturday night.

Partially because of the jagged cut that'll no doubt leave a permanent scar below his right eye. But mostly because of what he gained for fighting through adversity.

The 31-year-old Brazilian punched his ticket to the middleweight division's elite by coming out on top after a gritty, punishing and bloody five-rounder with Jared Cannonier.

Two judges saw it 49-45 in Borralho's favor and a third gave it to him by a 48-46 tally, running his UFC record to 7-0 and his career mark to 17-1, and putting him in a select group of fighters worthy of a post-fight callout to a champion.

"Dricus Du Plessis, get your a-- over here," he said. "The Fighting Nerds are coming for you."

Borralho's seven-fight win streak at 185 pounds is second only to the South African world champion's eight in a row, which has included wins over the men currently ranked as the first (Sean Strickland), second (Israel Adesanya) and third (Robert Whittaker) contenders. The fighter at No. 4, Nassourdine Imavov, had beaten Cannonier in four rounds in June.

It was nip and tuck between Borralho and the 40-year-old from Arizona across the first four rounds, but the younger man pulled away in the first fifth round of his career, dropping Cannonier with a hard left hand with 90 seconds left and chasing a submission via arm triangle before riding out the final 10 seconds on his feet.

It was Cannonier's eighth loss in 18 UFC appearances.

"We study a lot. We put all our souls into this game. We put every piece of ourselves into it," Borralho said. "We are just for one dream. I had to dig very deep. On Tuesday, I wanna see my name in the top five, please."

Winner: Young vs. Old

It was youth over age in Saturday's co-main event.

But not by a lot.

Eleventh-ranked strawweight Tabatha Ricci ensured herself a climb in the rankings with a decision victory over No. 9 Angela Hill, but the 10-year age gap between the two – Ricci is 29 years old, and Hill is 39 – was hardly apparent during a frenetic three-round scrap.

The women shared a high-end activity level throughout their 15 minutes together, though Ricci's aggressiveness was particularly effective in the first round and only slightly less so as Hill intermittently began finding her long-range striking game in the second.

Ricci continued to press forward in the third, but Hill scored the round's initial takedown and got a pop from the crowd and the announce table when she forcibly kicked Ricci away after the Brazilian known as "Baby Shark" tried to reverse the position.

All three judges scored it 29-28 and matched the B/R scorecard in favor of Ricci, who landed more than 100 strikes and landed three of her four takedown attempts.

"I was expecting exactly what I got in the cage from Angela," Ricci said. "It was very tough but I'm on my way. I'm just grateful for everything I have."

Winner: Ultimate Accomplishment

It'd be hard to make a better first impression than Mairon Santos did.

Actually, let's correct that. It'd be flat-out impossible.

The 24-year-old joined a long list of combatants whose lives have been changed by wins on The Ultimate Fighter and he did so in particularly memorable fashion, putting featherweight rival Kaan Ofli to sleep with a single right hand in Round 2 of their title bout.

It's the 15th win in 16 career fights for the Brazilian, who started the series alongside Ofli on Alexa Grasso's team and reached the final with a unanimous three-round defeat of Guillermo Torres.

He won the first round against his uber-aggressive foe with precision striking from the outside, then blasted Ofli with the fight-ending shot as his Australian-based rival charged forward with a looping left hand of his own.

"I don't have words to describe it. I don't know if I'm dreaming. It feels amazing," Santos said. "I'm the new Alex Pereira, baby. I want to be a champion. I intend to follow the same path. One day, I'm gonna be the UFC featherweight champion."

Santos was joined in the winners' circle one fight later by Valentina Shevchenko's middleweight protege Ryan Loder, a collegiate All-American wrestler who stopped betting favorite Robert Valentin with a series of hard elbows at 1:49 of Round 2.

A 33-year-old from California, Loder fought his way out of a submission attempt by Valentin in the first round, then got his man to the mat in the second, maneuvered him into a crucifix and let go with elbows until the finish.

"I've been working for this since day one," Loder said. "I take it one day at a time. We've got one more fight and it's gonna be a UFC fight this time. Let's go."

Tie: Torch Passing

Twenty-somethings Michael Morales and Edmen Shahbazyan were up against respected veterans in a pair of barometer matches to open Saturday's main card.

One youngster passed the test. One did not.

Morales, 25, boosted an unbeaten mark to 17-0 and all but guaranteed a spot in the updated rankings with a sudden, impressive stoppage of No. 12 welterweight Neil Magny, finishing the 37-year-old soon after landing a spinning right elbow from a fence-side tie-up.

Magny was in a standing control position on Morales' back when the Mexico-based Ecuadorian quickly pivoted and cracked Magny with the elbow, dropping him to the floor and following with a prolonged barrage that prompted a stoppage at 4:39.

"I think it's something that my corner saw. It flowed. It was in the flow," said Morales, a training partner of recently crowned 170-pound champ Belal Muhammad, whose tutelage he credited for preparing him for the Magny challenge. "It was a great opportunity. It was so important for my development. I couldn't have done it without them."

It started well but didn't finish the same for Shahbazyan, 26, who dropped 36-year-old Gerald Meerschaert with a hard body shot and went all-out for an early second-round finish but compromised his gas tank while doing so and found himself on the wrong end of an arm-triangle submission at 4:12.

It was Meerschaert's 12th UFC middleweight finish, snapping a tie atop the all-time list with former champion Anderson Silva.

"This dude. This dude," analyst Paul Felder gushed. "This is why we love Gerald Meerschaert. You can never count him out of a fight. That second round is Gerald Meerschaert's career in five minutes."

Winner: Making It Count

Francis Marshall probably controlled less than half of the 15 minutes he spent with Dennis Buzukja in their prelim card feature bout at lightweight.

But his six or seven minutes were too much for the judges to ignore.

The New Jersey-based 25-year-old earned the first round with a quick takedown and a long stretch of positional control, then blitzed his New York rival in the second and violently dropped him to the floor with a hard right hand in the opening 30 seconds.

And even though Buzukja rose and began establishing himself with hard and flashy left-hand shots of his own down the stretch, the early impression was enough to yield 29-28 and 30-27 verdicts for Marshall on two scorecards and a split-decision win.

A dissenting judge saw Buzukja as a 29-28 winner, matching the B/R card.

Still, it was a satisfying victory for Marshall, who took the fight on short notice when featherweight Danny Silva dropped out with an injury and prompted the substitute match to be made one division up at lightweight.

It was his eighth win in 10 career fights and second in four in the UFC.

"He's a dog. I'm a dog. It was a helluva fight," Marshall said. "I was a little surprised. I thought I was gonna get the finish there (in the second). But Dennis is a tough kid, and we had a dog fight."

Loser: Long-Range Reese

It won't always be so easy for Zachary Reese.

The 30-year-old Texan has been a successful front-runner for most of his three-year MMA career, scoring each of his seven pro wins prior to Saturday inside of one round.

So, when he was finally pushed beyond five minutes by rugged Bolivian export Jose Daniel Medina, it was time for the once-beaten middleweight to answer questions about his resolve and his gas tank that he'd never previously been asked.

His responses, at best, can be labeled as inconclusive.

Though Reese certainly deserved the shutout he was awarded by three cage-side judges, his level of menace was certainly less noticeable as the seconds ticked by.

He strafed Medina with strikes but was unable to get things done in the opening round, controlled the second round with a slightly less decisive output, and grinded through the third while taking several deep gulps of air and multiple glances up toward the clock.

Had the opposition been stouter than the fleshy Medina, who'd dropped down from light heavyweight after a loss on Dana White's Contender Series, it might not have so ended well, which Reese seemed to acknowledge afterward, without specifically saying it.

"I hit him with some hard shots, but hats off to him," Reese said. "Before this, all eight of my pro fights were about 13 minutes in total, so it was good to get in here and get a full 15 minutes."

Winner: Beginner's Pluck

Wang Cong didn't look or sound like a fighter making a UFC debut.

She sang as she strutted across the mat, smiled broadly during an introduction by Joe Martinez and bounced off the fence until waved forward by referee Chris Tognoni.

And once her prelim card opener with Victoria Leonardo began, she didn't look any less comfortable.

The 32-year-old Chinese export, an accomplished kick boxer with a win over former UFC champ Valentina Shevchenko, got her road to an MMA title started with an impressive first-round KO that lasted exactly 62 seconds.

She was the biggest favorite on the show with a –1000 prefight tag.

A classic jab, right hand combo dropped Leonardo to the floor, where her head landed with a thud and drew an instant intervention from Tognoni. Cong quickly pivoted to her next big step, simultaneously calling out a ranked fighter and suggesting her next appearance ought to be a little later in the evening.

"I'm not happy. I think I deserved the main card," she said. "Casey O'Neill. Are you ready?"

Full Card Results

Main Card

Caio Borralho def. Jared Cannonier by unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 48-46)

Tabatha Ricci def. Angela Hill by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Ryan Loder def. Robert Valentin by TKO (elbows), 1:49, Round 2

Mairon Santos def. Kaan Ofli by KO (punch), 1:30, Round 2

Michael Morales def. Neil Magny by TKO (punches), 4:39, Round 1

Gerald Meerschaert def. Edmen Shahbazyan by submission (arm triangle), 4:12, Round 2

Preliminary Card

Francis Marshall def. Dennis Buzukja by split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)

Zachary Reese def. Jose Daniel Medina by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Viacheslav Borshchev def. James Llontop by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)

Jacqueline Cavalcanti def. Josiane Nunes by split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)

Wang Cong def. Victoria Leonardo by KO (punches), 1:02, Round 1