UFC Perth headliner Carlos Prates is in enemy territory this Saturday, when he goes up against Australia\u2019s own Jack Della Maddalena in the Fight Night card\u2019s welterweight main event.<\/p>\n
Which has him rather surprised at the reception he\u2019s had since arriving in Perth, both in the gym and on the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m surprised, because they say \u2018I hope you win,’\u201d the Brazilian said during Wednesday\u2019s media day. Prates (23-7) isn\u2019t sure if people are just trying to be nice, but noted that \u201cwhen the octagon doors close, it\u2019s just me and Jack. But let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prates is known for his knockout power, and he had a prediction to that end on Wednesday. \u201cI will knock him out.\u201d As to what round, it\u2019s a \u201csurprise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a 25-minute fight for Prates this weekend, not his first, and The Fighting Nerds star did go the distance in a five-round fight against Ian Machado Garry a year ago. As to how he prepares for the extra time, \u201clike always, I train a lot. Sometimes I train two, three times per day. Train a lot, make the right strategy. And that\u2019s it,\u201d stated Prates. \u201cI have no secrets. Just train, train, train and let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
If all goes well on Saturday, Prates will build on wins over Geoff Neal and Leon Edwards. Both have been knockouts, and JDM would represent a second former welterweight champ beaten. That, believes Prates, should land him a title shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. I think after I beat two former champs in a row, I think nobody did it, so I\u2019m gonna be the next [title challenger].\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full UFC Perth media day appearance by Carlos Prates above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Perth headliner Carlos Prates is in enemy territory this Saturday, when he goes up against Australia\u2019s own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3398,3409,3406,3412,3399,3410,3402,3401,2132,3210,3408,3407,335,3405,3400,3411,3403,1412,3404],"class_list":{"0":"post-2400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-bellator","9":"tag-conor-mcgregor","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-gsp","12":"tag-invicta","13":"tag-jon-jones","14":"tag-lfa","15":"tag-martial-arts","16":"tag-mixed-martial-arts","17":"tag-mma","18":"tag-one-championship","19":"tag-one-fc","20":"tag-perth","21":"tag-pfl","22":"tag-rizin","23":"tag-ronda-rousey","24":"tag-titan-fc","25":"tag-ufc","26":"tag-wsof"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}