Prates became a can’t-miss attraction the moment he set foot on
the
Ultimate Fighting Championship campus.
The Vale Top Team- and
Fighting Nerds-trained Brazilian ventures out in pursuit of his
most consequential win to date when he meets former welterweight
champion Jack
Della Maddalena in the
UFC Fight Night 275 main event on Saturday at RAC Arena in
Perth, Australia. Prates enters the cage as a slight betting
favorite. As such, he appears to have several avenues to victory
ahead of his third headlining assignment with the company. A look
at three reasons why Prates beats Della Maddalena in the UFC’s
first trip to the land Down Under in almost three months:
Speed
Prates possesses the kind of fast-twitch athleticism that cannot be
taught and provides him with an edge against a wide swath of
welterweights. It has allowed him to get the jump in many of his
appearances, especially those who, like Della Maddalena, do their
business in the standup exchanges. Ian Garry
managed to bridge that gap as the only man to defeat “The
Nightmare” inside the Octagon. The Irishman crowded Prates in the
clinch and stifled his offense with a total of 19 takedown attempts
across their five-round encounter. Garry completed four of them and
piled up more than three minutes of control time, but more
importantly, he prevented the ONE
Championship and
Legacy Fighting Alliance alum from establishing any kind of
offensive rhythm. Della Maddalena does not have the tools to
replicate those efforts, as he has secured only one takedown in his
UFC career. That likely leaves him to test the waters in open space
against the explosive Prates.
Power
Prates has proven time and time again that he wields the type of
kill-switch pop that can end a fight in an instant. The 32-year-old
Brazilian boasts 21 finishes among his 23 professional victories,
18 of them by knockout or technical knockout. Prates has stopped 10
opponents inside one round. All six of his UFC wins—Leon
Edwards, Geoff Neal,
Neil
Magny, Jingliang
Li, Charles
Radtke and Trevin
Giles were the victims—have concluded with bursts of violence.
Prates flashed his weaponry in his most recent appearance at UFC
322, where he became the first man to dispatch the aforementioned
Edwards with strikes. One straight left did the trick against the
former welterweight champion. Remember, too, that he has two-inch
height and five-inch reach advantages against Della Maddalena.
Traction
Prates has logged 13 wins over his past 14 outings—a run of
sustained success that stretches back to 2019. He punched his
ticket to the UFC via
Dana White’s Contender Series some three years ago, rose
quickly through the ranks and steps onto the battlefield on the
strength of back-to-back victories. Della Maddalena, meanwhile,
must keep self-doubt at bay after a unanimous decision loss to
Islam
Makhachev in November ended his reign as the undisputed UFC
welterweight champion after just 189 days. It was the Aussie’s
first setback in almost a decade.