1 week Ago By Christopher De Santiago, Bloody Elbow
Carlos Prates could’ve been one hit or puff away from finishing Ian Machado Garry at UFC Kansas City. The core four Fighting Nerds are undefeated no more with Carlos Prates losing his first fight in the Octagon at UFC Kansas City. Prates had major momentum heading into his second main event against the #7-ranked Ian Machado Garry on Saturday, going 4-0 with four KO’s in 2024 all while smoking cigarettes in between his fights.
Slated for five rounds in the biggest fight of his career against Machado Garry, Prates didn’t ditch his smoking habit, which consists of 10-15 cigarettes on a ‘normal day’ for the Brazilian. Smoking a little less packs through this past week, Prates almost had Machado Garry beat on fight night with the Irishman badly hurt from his attacks and crawling on the canvas. Both men extremely tired in the final minute of the fight, Machado Garry ultimately survived Prates to win by unanimous decision, leaving a former UFC lightweight contender to question why Prates really lost.
Josh Thomson tells Carlos Prates to stop smoking after near-finish A veteran of UFC, Strikeforce and Bellator and the only man to finish Nate Diaz with strikes, Josh Thomson believes Prates’ smoking habit may have affected his cardio down the final stretch. “The lesson that I learned by watching Prates, you should probably stop smoking,” Thomson said on the Weighing In Podcast. “You were so close.
.. “If you quit smoking, you’d have a little bit more output.
“There’s different ways of looking at it. He looked like he had the cardio, but he was exhausted in the fifth. Obviously, trying to get him out of there.
But all he had to do, it just felt like all he had to do is just a little bit more. Just a tiny [bit],” Thomson said of Prates’ near-finish. Josh Thomson on why Carlos Prates looked ‘gun-shy’ Looking back on the fight, Thomson says Prates’ performance and low output of strikes in the early rounds could have varied between a few different factors from Machado Garry’s speed and lateral movement to The Fighting Nerd’s cardio spent on cigarettes.
Either way, Thomson says: “If you’re Prates, you’ve gotta be kicking yourself in the ass. CHAOS IN ROUND FIVE! How are your scorecards looking!? #UFCKansasCity pic.twitter.
com/8GHZ8la6Fw “Whether it’s because you didn’t have the cardio to push a little bit harder or and because you smoke or you just were real gun-shy because either the speed was throwing you off or you just gave them too much respect...
“One of the two,” Thomson said of why Prates lost to Machado Garry. “But no matter what you do, you’re just gonna wake up tomorrow morning and go back and watch the fight and be like, ‘Damn, I could’ve done this, I could’ve done that..
.'” This article first appeared on Bloody Elbow and was syndicated with permission..
