In the main event of Saturday’s UFC Perth event, Carlos Prates scored a third-round TKO of former champion Jack Della Maddalena. It was more than a win as Prates nearly tortured the hometown hero Della Maddalena with an assault of strikes, particularly knees that eventually sent him crashing to the canvas. Prates started strong in the first round, but JDM initially kept pace in returning fire. By round 2, however, the fight got away from the Aussie and round 3 was a total mugging.
With that win, Prates is quickly achieving designations at welterweight that are difficult to amass. Consider the following:
About a year ago, a viewer of my live chat asked me if Prates is one of the hardest hitters at welterweight ever. At the time I was intrigued by Prates, but unconvinced largely due to his other deficiencies and strength of schedule. Fast forward to now, all of Prates’s win come by way of stoppage in the UFC and he’s coming off of back-to-back stoppage wins of former UFC champions. The fan from a year ago deserves credit for quickly realizing Prates had serious potential.
In the video on this post, I react to Prates’s huge win, what it means for his future, what it proved about his abilities, the next step for Della Maddalena and more.
Oh, and as a bonus, here’s a different video I made earlier this week on the under performance of top jiu-jitsu athletes in the UFC and what that says about the sport:
