RIO DE JANEIRO \u2014 The UFC never called Carlos Prates or his team to discuss a potential clash with former two-division champion Conor McGregor, but the Brazilian also heard rumblings that \u201cThe Notorious\u201d was offered that match. It\u2019s clearly not happening at this moment, and Prates isn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n
Prates faces former UFC welterweight titleholder Jack Della Maddalena this Saturday in the headlining bout of UFC Perth. He told MMA Fighting he understands McGregor\u2019s reasoning for allegedly turning down the offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t put too much expectation on it, you know?\u201d Prates said. \u201cI\u2019ve always kept my feet on the ground. I knew a superstar like him, after being out for five years, probably wouldn\u2019t come back fighting someone who\u2019s been putting on great performances and knocking everyone out. Of course, if it happened it would\u2019ve been cool, it would\u2019ve been awesome, but my focus is on Jack Della Maddalena to get the title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has his reasons for the fight not happening,\u201d Prates added. \u201cNow it\u2019s time to move forward and focus on JDM.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prates scored violent knockouts over Geoff Neal and Leon Edwards in his most recent octagon appearances, maintaining his 100 percent bonus rate in the UFC with six knockouts and six $100,000 checks, and said \u201cthe expectations couldn\u2019t be better\u201d for his return in Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m training like crazy,\u201d Prates said. \u201cI believe this is the fight that will bring me a title shot so we\u2019re going into it with the best possible expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The welterweight division is one of the hottest right now with contenders lining up for a shot at the gold, and Prates hopes to move his name one step closer with a win over Della Maddalena. Meanwhile, Michael Morales still awaits his next move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that in terms of media and merit, yes, they\u2019ll give me the title shot if I win this fight against JDM,\u201d Prates said. \u201cMy focus right now is completely on him, winning this fight and bringing that opportunity back to Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makhachev won a decision over Della Maddalena in November 2025 to claim his second UFC belt after an dominant run as lightweight king, and Prates welcomes the chance to be the one to dethrone him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be incredible to fight him,\u201d Prates said. \u201cHe\u2019s the champion, the man to beat, the No. 1 pound-for-pound in the world. Beating a guy like that is huge for any fighter\u2019s career. I think it would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIO DE JANEIRO \u2014 The UFC never called Carlos Prates or his team to discuss a potential clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-634561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}