Carlos Prates asked for a fight with Jack Della Maddalena at UFC Perth on May 2 and that’s what he’s getting next. Other than facing a former welterweight champion in a main event spot, “The Nightmare” had a very special reason to travel to Australia: his daughter.
Prates’ 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.
Regina is a constant presence in her son’s 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.
“She’s not even focused on the fight anymore,” Prates told MMA Fighting. “Now it’s all about seeing her granddaughter. She’s already forgotten I’m fighting. She doesn’t care at all [laughs].”
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’s own Della Maddalena.
Prates is no stranger to competing in enemy territory and he couldn’t care less about any bad vibes because “the crowd can boo or cheer, but when the cage closes, it’s just two guys in there.”
All Prates cares about right now is making his family proud.
“She likes fighting, she trains,” Prates said of his daughter. “If you don’t slow her down, she already wants to play-fight with everyone. You have to hold her back [laughs].”
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.
“I grew up without a father,” Prates said. “My father died when I was a year and a half old, and then I met my ‘father,’ Cris [Nogueira, his coach], when I was 15 years old, so I know how it is. Of course, I wouldn’t want to be far away. Of course I’d like to have her with me [in Brazil], but it’s something my coach [Wagner] Motta always teaches me: let’s 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’d bring her here and she’d stay with me. If I could live there too, cool. But unfortunately that’s not the case, and we have to deal with it this way.”
Prates said he felt “fine” growing up without a father until Vale Top Team head coach Nogueira became a father figure for him. That doesn’t mean he wants others to have the same experience.
“I grew up without a father and it didn’t make a difference to me because it was normal,” Prates said, “But I wouldn’t like my daughter to feel that way too, to think like that.”
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, plus 30 MMA contests, Prates doesn’t see himself doing this for much longer.
“Time is something you don’t get back,” Prates said. “You can’t buy time. Time is passing and I’m working like crazy, you know? Yesterday I saw my mom, but it had been like three days since I’d 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?”
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’t the fighting.
“What’s most exhausting is the bureaucracy, having to deal with problems that have nothing to do with fighting,” Prates said. “These days I’m managing to delegate more to the people who work with me, but not everything yet. Everything that’s not related to fighting wears me out. I think not just me, it wears everyone out.”
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.
“Lucas [Lutkus] is a manager who, besides taking care of the fighting side, also looks after us on the financial side,” Prates said. “There’s a whole team that works with me. There’s a financial advisor, my accountant. If it were just me, there are things I wouldn’t even know exist [laughs]. If I had to do everything alone, I’d be screwed.”
