Carlos Prates Expects Finish of Ian Garry Between Third and Fourth Rounds

Carlos Prates is well prepared for his next headlining opportunity.

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.”