The landscape of the UFC welterweight division should finally take shape with Jack Della Maddalena putting his title on the line against Islam Makhachev and most of the top-ranked 170-pounders facing each other between Nov. 15 and 22 at UFC 322 and UFC Qatar, respectively, and Carlos Prates is aiming to be the most impressive of the pack.
Prates enters the cage on Saturday at Madison Square Garden to face former UFC champion Leon Edwards, a name he called for after demolishing Geoff Neal with an incredible spinning back elbow back in August, and said “the title shot will come depending on how each fight ends.”
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“With the matchups happening this week, and next week there’s Ian Garry vs. Belal Muhammad, I think I’m the most exciting guy,” Prates told MMA Fighting. “I think I’m the fighter that the crowd likes the most. I think if I knock out Leon Edwards, drop him with a big knockout like I did to Geoff Neal, I think I’ll cut the line and go to the title shot. Unless Ian Garry beats Belal Muhammad.”
“I don’t know how things work in the UFC,” he continued, “but Ian Garry has taken two last-minute fights, so the UFC kind of owes him — like, ‘let’s set the guy up at least once, he’s been taking last-minute fights.’ Maybe if he beats Belal Muhammad, I believe he’ll go for the belt. But if Sean Brady has a boring fight with [Michael] Morales and Ian Garry loses and I knock out Edwards, I strongly believe I’ll be next for the belt.”
Garry was the only man to defeat Prates inside the UFC, winning a decision in April. Prates later rebounded with the Neal stoppage for his fifth knockout in five octagon victories. Garry is 9-1 in the promotion, but six of those wins were decisions. The “exciting” factor could play in his favor if Prates finishes Edwards and Garry can’t look all that flashy against Muhammad.
“Man, [if Garry wins a boring fight,] then I don’t know. You got me there, man,” Prates said. “That was a good question. I don’t know, bro. Let’s hope I also jump the line? [laughs] [Garry] can win, but let it be a boring fight and then I go there, knock Leon Edwards out, which I’m training for, and I get the title shot. That’s what I’m thinking about right now.”
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Entering what could end up being a No. 1 contender eliminator, Prates said he’s not surprised that Edwards agreed to face him.
“There are riskier fights for him out there,” Prates said. “Maybe if he faced a guy like Sean Brady, or Belal Muhammad — whom he already lost to — or Kamaru Usman, I think those would be much riskier fights. I always bring the same game, I always come with the same strategy, so in his head it must be much easier to beat me than those guys. I think that’s why he accepted. But I wasn’t surprised. It’s a good fight for a former champion. Like he said in an interview, he wants to beat me, beat Ian Garry and then fight for the title. It’s a path he sees as favorable for him, but I think he’s a bit mistaken.”
A ferocious striker fighting out of VTT and Fighting Nerds in Sao Paulo, Prates said he has the impression that everyone who agrees to face him under the UFC banner sees a clear path to victory by taking him down to the ground, but are in for a shock when it’s time to implement such game plan.
“The impression I’ve been getting is that guys watch my fights and they have a different impression, and when they’re actually fighting me they see it’s not what they thought,” Prates said. “I’m a guy who always likes to be evolving, I always like to test new things, new angles to strike, different ways to defend, you know? Although my game is always the same, trading strikes and defending takedowns, I’m training. I’m training with Caio Borralho, who is one of the guys who’s helped me most for this camp. I’m training a lot of ground work, a lot of takedowns, taking people down and defending. I’m prepared for everything — and being prepared for everything lets me unleash my striking even more. With more comfort, with less worry.”
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Edwards scored three of his 14 UFC wins via knockout, including an epic head kick over Kamaru Usman to claim the welterweight gold in 2022, but Prates doesn’t expect him to try his hands against him at Madison Square Garden.
“He’ll play that safe game he always does, throwing jabs, jabs and feint and not exposing himself much,” Prates said. “I think he’ll try to take me down late in the round to win the decision. We know he’s not a knockout artist, he’s not a finisher, [and fighting] against a guy who likes to finish people, I don’t believe he’s going to risk it — especially coming off two losses.
“He’s always been a bureaucratic fighter, and he’ll be even more bureaucratic now that he’s coming off two losses. He’s a smart guy, we know he’s intelligent, so he’s not going to come to trade blows. I’ll be alert to that. I can’t let him turn the fight into a boring fight because that would be good for him. He’s a guy who doesn’t know how to brawl. He gets lost when he has to brawl, so we’ll see how the fight goes.”
