Carlos
Prates is well prepared for his next headlining
opportunity.
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The Brazilian, who arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday,
spoke to Sherdog.com about his upcoming fight with Ian Garry in
the UFC
on ESPN 66 main event on Saturday night. Prates was originally
supposed to face Geoff Neal at
UFC
314 in a three-round bout on April 12 before his opponent
withdrew from the event.
„I didn’t do anything different in that camp. Actually I always
train for five rounds, even when I fight three rounds, so it was
basically the same,” Prates said. “The only difference is that I
brought BJJ master Vagner Motta to help me with takedown defense
and ground skills.”
According to
The Fighting Nerds representative, the scale will not be a
problem for him, either.
„Since my last fight I started to work with my nutritionist to gain
weight and get stronger in the division. I started this camp
weighing 90 kilograms (198 pounds), but I’m already weighing 82
kilograms (180 pounds) on Monday, so I´ll not have any problems in
the weigh-ins,” he said.
While Garry is coming off a closely-contested decision defeat to
Shavkat
Rakhmonov in December, Prates spent more time studying a couple
other of the Irishman’s past opponents.
„My main focus while studying was not the Shavkat fight, but his
fights with southpaws, like [Michael
Page] and Geoff Neal,
who were able to bring him difficult moments,” Prates said.
Prates, who has four straight UFC wins via knockout, makes no
attempt to disguise his game plan for Garry.
„My main focus is no secret, keep the fight standing,” he said. “It
will be a war until one of us imposes his game, and I’m sure it
will be me. I must break him in two between the third and fourth
round.”
Assuming all goes as planned on Saturday, Prates believes he will
need one more victory to earn a welterweight title shot. Belal
Muhammad is currently slated to defend the 170-pound belt
against Jack
Della Maddalena at UFC 315
on May 10.
„There is a long line in that division,” Prates said. “Shavkat is
ahead of me. In case of a win, I believe Sean Brady
would be a great title elimination fight.”
With other three teammates from The Fighting Nerds growing in
different divisions (Jean Silva
at 145 pounds, Maurico Ruffy at 155 and Caio
Borralho at 185), Prates has no doubt that Borralho will emerge
as the first champion of the celebrated team.
„I truly hope UFC puts him against [Khamzat] Chimaev for the
interim belt,” Prates said. “Chimaev released a video of him giving
a hard time to Caio when they trained in 2022. What he did not
realize is that Borralho went there to help him for the fight
against Nate Diaz, not
to beat him. Also, it was three years ago. Caio has evolved a lot,
and [Chimaev] will see what I’m saying [if] they fight for the
[interim] belt.”