{"id":637056,"date":"2026-04-28T21:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637056\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T21:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:56:10","slug":"you-cant-buy-time-with-family-in-attendance-ufc-perth-is-all-about-making-family-proud-for-carlos-prates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637056\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You can\u2019t buy time\u2019: With family in attendance, UFC Perth is all about making family proud for Carlos Prates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Prates asked for a fight with Jack Della Maddalena at UFC Perth on May 2 and that\u2019s what he\u2019s getting next. Other than facing a former welterweight champion in a main event spot, \u201cThe Nightmare\u201d had a very special reason to travel to Australia: his daughter.<\/p>\n

Prates\u2019 6-year-old daughter lives in Australia, and the Fighting Nerd welterweight has brought his mother Regina overseas for the first time so they can finally meet in person.<\/p>\n

Regina is a constant presence in her son\u2019s life, making sure he performs at his best in the gym and under the bright lights of the UFC; however, this time, she only has eyes for her granddaughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not even focused on the fight anymore,\u201d Prates told MMA Fighting. \u201cNow it\u2019s all about seeing her granddaughter. She\u2019s already forgotten I\u2019m fighting. She doesn\u2019t care at all [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n

Prates fought once in Australia as a UFC fighter in 2024, knocking out Li Jingliang. His daughter was in attendance that night, and will be inside RAC Arena this Saturday to watch her father face off with Australia\u2019s own Della Maddalena.<\/p>\n

Prates is no stranger to competing in enemy territory and he couldn\u2019t care less about any bad vibes because \u201cthe crowd can boo or cheer, but when the cage closes, it\u2019s just two guys in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Prates cares about right now is making his family proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe likes fighting, she trains,\u201d Prates said of his daughter. \u201cIf you don\u2019t slow her down, she already wants to play-fight with everyone. You have to hold her back [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n

Father and daughter are separated by thousands of miles and the Pacific ocean, but Prates said he tries to be the best parent possible despite the long distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up without a father,\u201d Prates said. \u201cMy father died when I was a year and a half old, and then I met my \u2018father,\u2019 Cris [Nogueira, his coach], when I was 15 years old, so I know how it is. Of course, I wouldn\u2019t want to be far away. Of course I\u2019d like to have her with me [in Brazil], but it\u2019s something my coach [Wagner] Motta always teaches me: let\u2019s do the best we can with the conditions we have right now. And the condition I have right now is seeing her two or three times a year. If I could, I\u2019d bring her here and she\u2019d stay with me. If I could live there too, cool. But unfortunately that\u2019s not the case, and we have to deal with it this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prates said he felt \u201cfine\u201d growing up without a father until Vale Top Team head coach Nogueira became a father figure for him. That doesn\u2019t mean he wants others to have the same experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up without a father and it didn\u2019t make a difference to me because it was normal,\u201d Prates said, \u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t like my daughter to feel that way too, to think like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sao Paulo native has seen success in the UFC, winning six of seven octagon appearances, all by knockout, and with performance bonuses cashed for every single one of them. Soon to turn 33 and with over 100 muay Thai bouts under his belt<\/a>, plus 30 MMA contests, Prates doesn\u2019t see himself doing this for much longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is something you don\u2019t get back,\u201d Prates said. \u201cYou can\u2019t buy time. Time is passing and I\u2019m working like crazy, you know? Yesterday I saw my mom, but it had been like three days since I\u2019d last seen her because things have been hectic. My mom is already in her seventies, I need to enjoy time with her and be with her, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Prates could earn a shot at the belt with a win Saturday, beating two former champions in a row after his latest knockout over Leon Edwards, and he wants to write his name in the history books. Ironically, the most exhausting part of his fighting career isn\u2019t the fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s most exhausting is the bureaucracy, having to deal with problems that have nothing to do with fighting,\u201d Prates said. \u201cThese days I\u2019m managing to delegate more to the people who work with me, but not everything yet. Everything that\u2019s not related to fighting wears me out. I think not just me, it wears everyone out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claiming bonuses for every win adds many zeros to your bank account, and Prates said everything is done to provide a better future for those around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cLucas [Lutkus] is a manager who, besides taking care of the fighting side, also looks after us on the financial side,\u201d Prates said. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole team that works with me. There\u2019s a financial advisor, my accountant. If it were just me, there are things I wouldn\u2019t even know exist [laughs]. If I had to do everything alone, I\u2019d be screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Prates asked for a fight with Jack Della Maddalena at UFC Perth on May 2 and that\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-637056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637056","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=637056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}