While Carlos
Prates (20-9) is one of the most exciting welterweight
prospects in the UFC today, his early career wasn’t as
promising.
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Prates made his pro debut in 2012 and went 5-4 in his first nine
bouts, alternating between wins and losses. However, “The
Nightmare” has since turned his career around, winning 15 of his
last 17 with 14 finishes. Prates credits the time he spent in
Thailand for the abrupt turnaround in his career. The Brazilian
also admits that he was still very young and susceptible to making
mistakes during the early phase of his career.
“I think after I spend a lot of time in Thailand because Thailand
give me a lot of experience,” Prates recently told Kevin Iole. “And make me more
confident to fight [in] muay thai or MMA. Also, I was really young
when I was losing a lot. And was fighting in wrong weight division.
And didn’t train too much, spend a lot of time with things that
don’t make me better. Then I get a little bit old, more confident
and things like that.”
Prates earned his
UFC contract with a knockout win on
Dana White’s Contender Series last year and has since racked up
three-fight finishing streak. Prates’ win over Mitch
Ramirez on the Contender Series earned him a comparison to the
legendary Anderson
Silva from Dana White. While Prates welcomes the comparison, he
doesn’t feel any pressure to live up to expectations. The
31-year-old also hopes to become a benchmark for comparison like
Silva in his UFC career.
“I don’t feel any pressure to be honest,” he said. “I just step
inside of the cage and try to do my best… We hear about I look like
Anderson
Silva, it’s really nice. But I work hard to, maybe in five
years, 10 years, Dana White coming to another guy and say, ‘Hey
that guy look like a Carlos
Prates in his prime.’”
Prates is scheduled to headline UFC
Vegas 100 — also known as UFC Fight Night 247 — against veteran
Neil
Magny (26-12) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday. Prates
hopes to be ranked in the Top 15 with a potential win.
“I deserve to be ranked if I win against Magny,” he said. “If I
don’t get the win, I don’t deserve. But I think so, I think I’m
gonna fight Neil Magny,
I’m gonna knock him out. With all due respect, he looks like a
really nice guy. But it’s business is what it is.”