Carlos Prates was looking to lock his spot as ‘Rookie of the Year’ in the UFC Vegas 100 main event against Neil Magny. Being 3-0 since entering the promotion, this fight represented an opportunity for The Nightmare to enter the rankings as Magny held the number 15 spot at 170 pounds.
Prates‘ takedown defense had largely gone untested during his UFC run, only having to defend five attempts and forfeiting one in his Contender Series fight last year. Magny shot more than once and Prates defended every single attempt very well. Showing incredible balance as Magny was lifting his leg far up in the air, even reversing an attempt into a takedown of his own.
The UFC veteran had nothing for Prates on the feet and after getting tagged a few times, it was a glancing shot to the temple that ultimately put him down with 10 seconds left in the very first round. Prates didn’t play with his food and got him out of there early.
With this win, the 31-year old really seems to be entering his prime years. He is now on a 10-fight win, 9-fight KO streak dating back to 2019. The Fighting Nerds camp, who really have taken the sport by storm, kept their hot streak going with Caio Borralho, Jean Silva, Mauricio Ruffy and Prates going a combined 10-0 this year with 9 of those wins coming by KO.
But what did we really learn from this main event? In short, we learned that Prates is a real player at welterweight. We saw him defend takedowns and do what he was expected to do as a -850 betting favourite. Yes, Magny is getting older, but he still offered real resistance to Mike Malott, another welterweight prospect back in January of this year. Is Magny’s wrestling offence on par with some of the best wrestlers in the division? No, but he went 0 for 7 against Prates.
That was still the biggest wrestling threat Prates has had to fend off so far in the UFC and he passed that test with flying colours, which is all you can ask for from your rising contender.
This is the biggest win of Prates’ career and his callouts were pretty great, as well. He asked for Jack Della Maddalena in Sydney at UFC 312, or for Geoff Neal if he cannot get that matchup with the Australian. Both of those fights would be guaranteed fireworks. And while the Della Maddalena one is especially salivating, we may still be a few fights away from it.
Regardless of which direction the UFC want to go with him, it’s hard to imagine any matchup being a dull one when you have such a knockout machine on your hands.
