Carlos
Prates certainly doesn’t function like most elite fighters.
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Prates knocked out Charlie
Radtke with a knee to the body at UFC
on ESPN 57 on Saturday. Prates was seen smoking a cigarette when he found out that he
would be returning home with a $50,000 bonus for his
performance.
Before finding out about his bonus win, Prates revealed that he had
smoked even on the day of the fight. Having spent more years of his
life as a smoker than as a non-smoker, it is now just a part of the
routine for “Carlao.”
“I think I smoke since [I was] 15 years old,” Prates told Full Send MMA. “I have more time living smoking
than without smoking. So for me it’s normal, I smoke before the
fight, on the day of the fight, it’s normal. Now we here in
Louisville, so I try to go drink some whiskey because here is
capital of whiskey and I really like whiskey.”
Prates also admits that’s he is a difficult fighter to work with
due to his lifestyle habits. The 30-year-old, who identifies more
as a fighter than as an athlete, claims to face a lot of criticism
for choosing the high life. However, Prates doesn’t lack when it
comes to putting in the work and is glad that his father and coach
have found a way to work around that.
“I don’t know is it’s nice to say that or not, but I’m not the guy
like I’m athlete. I like to say I’m fighter, I’m not athlete,”
Prates said. “Everybody say bad things because sometimes I go to
party or smoke cigarettes and drink. Of course, it’s not good but I
know how to find a way… When I come to train, I’m the first guy to
come to the gym and the last one to leave the gym. And I think
because of my lifestyle people sometimes they say s—t or bad
things. But my coach Pablo Flabio and my daddy Chris they know how
to work with me.”
Prates had a heated face-off with Radtke leading up to their fight.
Prates claims he could feel Radtke’s fear when they went forehead
to forehead and already knew he was winning. Prates could be seen
speaking to Radtke’s teammate and upcoming UFC welterweight title
challenger Belal
Muhammad after his win. The Brazilian revealed that he called
out “Remember the Name” for a future clash in the heat of the
moment.
A veteran on the regional scene, Prates has finished 17 of his 19
career wins so far, including two in the UFC.