The UFC has booked Caio Borralho against Reinier de Ridder for UFC 326 on March 7, 2026, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The middleweight bout will take place on the same card headlined by Max Holloway’s BMF title defense against Charles Oliveira. The news was first released by Léo Walker Guimaraes.
Caio Borralho Takes on Reinier De Ridder in UFC 326 Middleweight Bout
Borralho, the Brazilian striker-grappler from the Fighting Nerds, lost a competitive unanimous decision to Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Paris in September 2025. De Ridder, the Dutch submission specialist and former ONE Championship two-division champion, suffered his first UFC loss when Brendan Allen forced him to quit on the stool between rounds four and five at UFC Vancouver in October. Both are coming off high-ranked losses.
Borralho enters the fight ranked eighth in the middleweight division with a UFC record free of losses until the Imavov bout. The 32-year-old Brazilian had racked up seven straight wins before facing Imavov, including a five-round decision over former title challenger Jared Cannonier in August 2024. His well-rounded approach, mixing wrestling, grappling, and striking, has made him a consistent threat at middleweight. Prior to the Imavov loss, Borralho had weighed in as a backup fighter for the UFC 319 title bout between Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus du Plessis.
De Ridder arrives at the matchup ranked ninth, with a professional record of 21-3 and a 4-1 UFC mark. The 34-year-old’s lone UFC defeat came to Allen after he’d shown impressive form in the promotion, including a split decision victory over Robert Whittaker in July. De Ridder’s grappling prowess and submission threats had positioned him as a dark horse contender, though the Allen loss exposed his vulnerability to sustained ground-and-pound and cardio management over extended rounds.
Both fighters find themselves in the position of needing a statement win to regain momentum in a stacked middleweight division led by undefeated champion Chimaev. The pairing makes competitive sense, offering each fighter a chance to climb back toward the title picture while delivering a potentially high-level technical matchup between two grapplers with distinct styles.