When asked how he might defeat former welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena in this weekend’s UFC Fight Night main event in Australia, Brazilian slugger Carlos Prates — similar to his exciting fighting style — cut directly to the chase.
“I will knock him out,” Prates told CBS Sports HQ on Tuesday. “I will knock him out.”
Beloved by fight fans for his lifestyle of chain smoking and partying, just as much as his tattoos and violent knockout power in both hands, Prates (23-7) — aptly nicknamed “The Nightmare” — is on the verge of true breakout stardom and title contention.
The 32-year-old Prates has finished 21 of the 23 opponents he has beaten as a pro, including 18 by knockout, and is 6-1 since making his UFC debut just two years ago, with knockouts in his last 12 wins dating back to 2019. And should he follow up last November’s dismantling of former champion Leon Edwards with a win over Della Maddalena (18-3) in his opponent’s backyard of Perth inside RAC Arena, Prates is likely looking at a title shot.
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In fact, Prates declared he wouldn’t accept anything less than one and mentioned he expects to face the winner of Islam Makhachev’s rumored defense later this summer against Ian Machado Garry, the only man to defeat Prates in the UFC.
“Definitely, after I beat JDM, the second [former] champ I’m going to beat in a row, I’m going to be the next,” Prates mentioned. “I heard about Makhachev and Ian Garry on Aug. 15, [which is] two days before my birthday. I hope to be there watching and challenging the champ after the fight.”
Make no mistake, Prates is expecting a difficult challenge from 29-year-old Della Maddalena, who will have no shortage of motivation coming off a one-sided title loss to Makhachev in November that snapped a 16-fight win streak.
Even though Della Maddalena was thoroughly dominated by Makhachev’s savant grappling skills, Prates could only chuckle when asked if he plans on trying to further exploit that hole in JDM’s game.
“On my side, no, I’m not planning takedowns. I’m planning to hurt somebody,” Prates mentioned. “I’m just planning violence — just plan punches, kicks. That’s it. I think [Della Maddalena] did maybe a wrong strategy [against Makhachev] but it is what it is. Makhachev is good. So, that’s why I’m expecting the best version of JDM right now. Probably, he’s going to come angry and hungry. He just lost his belt and wants a run back to the title so I’m expecting his best version.”
A late bloomer himself, the best version of Prates took a long time of seasoning to get to where he is now.
Two years after he turned pro in 2012 at the age of 19 in Brazil, Prates was just 5-4 with four stoppage defeats. After taking more than a year off, Prates moved to Thailand to immerse himself in Muay Thai and eventually ran off a 29-5 kickboxing over the next five years while slowly improving as an MMA fighter by bouncing back and forth between disciplines in Asia.
In 2021, Prates transitioned back to MMA for good and won his next five fights before scoring a second-round TKO in his “Dana White Contender Series” tryout two years later. All six of Prates’ subsequent UFC wins came by knockout within two rounds and even his April 2025 decision loss to Garry, in Prates’ first five-round bout, was impressive considering he rallied back after a miserable start to nearly finish the No. 2-ranked welterweight in the championship rounds.
At first glance of his highlight reel, which includes a nasty spinning back elbow finish of Geoff Neal last August, Prates appears as if his power is just different from the average UFC power puncher, in that, when his opponents get hit cleanly, their bodies go flying just as their consciousness disappears.
Prates, however, mentioned his current level of power has been a work in progress with all of the credit going to his boxing coach Artur “Bambam” Furquim and remains somewhat of a surprise to himself.
“Bro, I don’t feel [the power]. I don’t know [how to explain it],” Prates mentioned. “I don’t know because before I started to train with ‘Bambam,’ I didn’t knock nobody [out] with just one punch. And then I started training boxing with him and then I started knocking everyone out. So, I don’t feel like strong, I just feel like normal. For me, it [just feels] OK. But, of course, a lot of training and a lot of work is paying off and we are going to keep doing this.”
Prates revealed this week that it was he who pushed UFC matchmakers into giving him a fight against Della Maddalena, in his opponent’s home city, because of the proximity of the location to his six year-old daughter, who lives in Australia. Prates’ mother, who will be making the trip from Brazil, has yet to meet her granddaughter and the family reunion served as Prates’ main priority.
“For me, it’s real important. I love them and it’s really nice to spend time with them and be with them,” Prates mentioned. “Of course, when I step in the cage, it doesn’t matter too much. A lot of people are asking me about the crowd that will support JDM. Of course, but when the Octagon doors close, nothing else matters, just me and him and the better fighter is going to get a win.”
Prates, who has previously mentioned he tries to limit his smoking habit to no more than 10-15 cigarettes during fight week, is quick to make it known he isn’t trying to convince others to develop the same habit. But when it comes to his growing stardom, he knows that his loose lifestyle outside the cage plays a key role.
“Yes, I think that’s why they like me,” Prates mentioned. “It’s nice to show because some people think the fighters are like a different kind of people. We are normal people. We are like everybody. We can smoke, we can party. Of course, it’s not nice to do. I don’t say nobody should start to smoke or drink. But, if you like it, and you can become a fighter, you can do that too. Why not?”
While Prates would love to defeat Della Maddalena and then take the title from Makhachev, who is recognized as the pound-for-pound best in the sport, he doesn’t hide the fact that there’s a much more perfect scenario that could play out should Garry, a native of Ireland who lives most of the year in Brazil, pull the upset.
“I want a rematch against Ian,” Prates mentioned. “Our plan is Ian beats Makhachev and then we have a talk about fighting for the belt in a rematch in Brazil. It would be really cool.”
