Carlos Prates is unaffected by Ian Machado Garry’s personal digs about him before UFC on ESPN 66, and said his official response will come in the octagon.
Prates (21-6 MMA, 4-0 UFC) has found himself on the receiving end of numerous verbal shots from Machado Garry (15-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) ahead of Saturday’s welterweight headliner at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. (ESPN2, ESPN+).
Machado Garry has labeled Prates a “quitter” after examining tape of a March 2012 loss where the fight was stopped when he wouldn’t get off the stool. Additionally, Machado Garry claims he’s “more Brazilian” than his opponent due to the time he spends and connection he has made to the country.
Whether Machado Garry truly believes what he is saying, or simply conducting mental warfare, is not of concern to Prates, he said. It doesn’t bother him outside of the octagon, and he said it certainly won’t change what happens inside of it, either.
“I don’t care about what he’s saying,” Prates told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “When I step into the octagon there’s no emotions, no anything. He can say whatever he wants, but it’s going to change. I’m going to step in the cage, I’m going to smash him. I’m going to knock him out, I’m going to hurt him just because I’m getting paid for that. It’s my job. It’s my work. Not because of what he’s saying or things like that.”
If Machado Garry’s comments are coming from a place of trying to rattle Prates, he said it’s not going to work. In fact, Prates said it’s having the revers effect, and he is now questioning the mental flaw that had led to Machado Garry taking this approach.
“When some fighters do what he’s doing is because his mind is not so strong like mine,” Prates said. “He’s trying to break my mind because maybe at some point in his life or some fight, somebody did it to him. Now he’s afraid about me starting to do it with him, so he starts to do it with me. Nothing has changed. Saturday night, I’m going to go there, listen to my music, walk out, step in the cage and get one more win, one more bonus, knock him out and that’s it.”
After a hot start to his UFC tenure, Prates has the utmost confidence that Machado Garry is simply his next step toward claiming the 170-pound title. Prates knows the division is plentiful with the likes of Shavkat Rakhmonov, Sean Brady and potentially even Islam Makhachev all closely watching the May 10 title fight between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 in Montreal.
Prates can’t pinpoint what his path to gold will look exactly, but he knows this result is a crucial part of the process.
“I’m going to how him a lot of things,” Prates said. “I’m going to show him who is the fighter, and I’m going to smash him. I’m going to knock him out and become really close to becoming UFC welterweight champion, really close to fighting for the title.”
