Daniel Cormier could not have been more impressed by Carlos Prates this past weekend.
On Saturday, Prates delivered the best performance of his MMA career, dominating former welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena en route to a third-round stoppage in the main event of UFC Perth. That now makes two former champions that Prates has demolished in a row, and according to Cormier, it put Prates in the thick of the title mix at 170 pounds.
”Carlos Prates has now put himself on the short-list of fighters who could potentially challenge the champion, Islam Makhachev,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel.
“Before he goes in there with Jack Della Maddalena, that happens when you’ve already got a victory over Leon Edwards, when you already have beaten guys like Geoff Neal and so many others on your way towards a fight with a former champion, Jack Della; he’s on a short list. He’s already close.
“You beat the former champion in the way that he beat Della Maddalena – because that was bad. That was bad. Honestly, when I was watching that from afar, I thought to myself — because I’ve never seen Jack just get beat on like that — ‘How does Prates win?’ going into the fight. I thought Jack Della Maddalena had a style that would create some real issues for Prates. No issues at all for Carlos.“
Prates joined the UFC in 2024 from Contender Series and immediately made a splash, earning knockouts and Performance bonuses in his first four fights. He then lost a unanimous decision to Ian Machado Garry last April, setting him back a bit. Since then, though, Prates has returned to his destructive form, scoring three more knockouts and three more Performance bonuses. But this is the one that really made Cormier stand up and take notice.
”That performance told me two things: One, Prates is ready to compete for the UFC championship. Two, Prates learned. Prates learned,” Cormier said.
“We look at these fighters, old ones, young ones, and when they hit the main event scene, they have to prove to themself and they have to prove to people that they’re absolutely ready to, one, not only carry a card, but compete under the spotlight of a main event. It’s not the same to be fighting on a card, and then walking last, or walking second to last, knowing everybody in the building is there to watch you fight.
“The first time Prates did that, against Ian Garry, he froze. He froze. He did not fight well, and Ian Garry’s an absolute stud. I don’t care what you think of him. … Ian Garry’s an absolute stud, but in that fight, Carlos looked like he just wasn’t ready. We had him smoking cigarettes all over the internet the week of the fight – all these things that just didn’t seem like he was ready for the spotlight the main event carries. Not this time, though. …
”I watched him deliver at a level that tells me he’s championship-ready. Dude’s championship-ready. He’s championship-ready right now.”
Prates certainly agrees, making his case for a welterweight title shot following his win on Saturday. Unfortunately, there are several other contenders lined up at welterweight right now, including the man who beat him, Garry. And while Cormier believes Garry still has the inside track to challenge Islam Makhchev next, he’s also not discounting Prates from sneaking into a title shot.
“Here’s the issuethough: The weight class is so stacked,” Cormier said.
“It feels like it’s going to be Ian Garry, but if it was to be Prates after that? Nobody would complain. Nobody would complain, and I’ll tell you why: We just saw Islam beat Jack Della Maddalena in the way that he did. We saw him dominate Jack Della Maddalena to win the championship. The way Islam beat Jack was not nearly as impressive as what Carlos Prates did the other day.
”It was impressive. He made it look easy. But that, yesterday, was crazy. It looked like Della Maddalena didn’t belong in there with Prates.”
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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Jake Paul giving love back to Olivia Rodrigo.
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Nate Diaz in fight shape.
Yeah, needed more of this energy sooner I think.
Questions? Answers!
Y’all know what time it is.
UFC Perth is over, and we’re on the road to UFC 328. Do you have questions? Fire them here and I’ll answer the best ones in this week’s mailbag column, and get to the rest in the responses.
Thanks! Love y’all!
I think it would be very silly for Prates to either get the next welterweight title shot or wait. There’s too much going on at 170 right now. If Garry is up next, that’s fine. But Bonfim is about to fight Belal, Malott just got a big win, Brady and Buckley are fighting, Kamaru is still hanging around, and one day Shavkat Rakhmonov’s knees might work again. Plus, there’s the looming specter of Ilia Topuria wasting everyone’s time with a nonsense welterweight title shot.
Prates is going to have to fight again, and he should fight Michael Morales because that would be the best.
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