Considered one of the most popular UFC fighters in Brazil today Carlos Prates was recently invited to appear on one of Brazil’s most popular podcasts: Podpah, a YouTube channel with almost 10 million subscribers.
In a two-hour conversation, Prates drank four beers and smoked two cigarettes, reminiscing about his entire journey and eliciting laughter from both hosts with his usual candor. According to The Fighting Nerds product, his entry into fighting was an alternative found by his mother due to his difficulties at school.
“My mother is a teacher, and since I was very difficult and had learning difficulties, she decided to take me to a psychologist when I was 8 years old, where I was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder),” Prates said. “Once she saw me engrossed in watching a DVD of Wanderlei Silva fighting Yuki Kondo in Pride, and noticed my interest in fighting, [she] decided to enroll me in a muay thai school.”
In martial arts, Prates began to stand out and found his path. At age 22, when he already had nine MMA fights — four losses and five wins — he knew that improving his striking ability would be a turning point in his career. He saw an advertisement on Facebook for a six-month camp in Thailand for $3,000, and with his mother’s financial help, he left for the land of muay thai.
“It was supposed to be six months, and I stayed six years. In the first month alone, I had six fights,” said Prates, estimating that today he has around 140 fights, including both muay thai and MMA.
The experience of fighting more than once a week to support himself in Thailand brought Prates, in addition to calmness, the experience of fighting injured.
“It’s very difficult for a high-performance athlete to arrive at a fight after a tough camp without any injuries. In the fight with [Jack Della] Maddalena, for example, I had a partial tear of the ligament in my right shoulder and couldn’t raise my arm above my head,” said Prates, also acknowledging that before this fight he”overdid it with the partying” during the break he usually takes between camps.
“This time I went a little overboard. I fought [Leon] Edwards in November and only went back to training for JDM in February. Since I arrived in the UFC, I’ve never spent so much time away from the gym, totally off.”
Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time
Prates also said that he believes he will be the next to fight for the belt against the winner of Ian Garry and Islam Makhachev. Should he capture welterweight gold, Prates has no designs on setting any records for championship longevity.
“Hell no. I’m 32 years old, I want to fight until I’m 35,” he said. “After the belt, do some more super fights and that’s good.”
One super fight that intrigues Prates is a matchup against current UFC lightweight champ Ilia Topuria.
“It would be a great fight,” Prates said. “But think I can make it difficult for him with my reach advantage.”
