Carlos Prates enters title conversation
- Carlos Prates knocked out former welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena in Perth on May 2, then immediately got pushed into UFC title-shot talk. - The key detail is how one-sided it looked — Prates finished Della Maddalena at 3:17 of round 3 after controlling range and damage. - That matters because Islam Makhachev now needs a welterweight challenger, and Daniel Cormier says Prates has joined that shortlist.
Welterweight matchmaking moved fast this weekend. Carlos Prates went into UFC Perth as a dangerous striker with momentum. He left it looking like a real title option. The shift happened because he didn’t just beat Jack Della Maddalena on May 2 in Perth — he broke him down and stopped him in the third round, which is the kind of win that changes how the division talks about you. ### What actually happened in Perth? Prates headlined UFC Fight Night at RAC Arena against former welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena and won by TKO at 3:17 of round 3. UFC’s own recap framed it the same way fans did — Prates went into Della Maddalena’s backyard, “put it on him,” and stamped himself as a contender. That matters because Della Maddalena was stilo Islam Makhachev. ### Why did this win hit so hard? Because it wasn’t a squeaker. It looked like control. Prates managed distance, landed the cleaner damage, and never gave Della Maddalena much rhythm. MMA Fighting’s roundup of fighter reactions captured the mood pretty well — Islam Makhachev himself reacted, and other pros treated the performance as a statement, not just another mainer starts talking, the matchmaking conversation changes immediately. ### So why is Islam Makhachev part of this story? Because Makhachev is now the welterweight champion, and every big welterweight result gets filtered through one question: could this guy challenge him next? That’s the new reality after Makhachev moved up and beat Della Maddalenaund. Perth turned it from hypothetical into a live option. ### Who pushed the title-shot idea? Daniel Cormier did, very loudly. In post-fight discussion picked up by MMA Fighting, Yahoo Sports, and others, Cormier said “nobody would complain” if Prates jumped the line and got the next shot at Makhachev. He also put Prates on thout backlash, that’s matchmaking oxygen. ### Is Prates really next in line? Not automatically. That’s the catch. Ian Machado Garry is still in the mix, and other names can surface quickly if the UFC wants a different style matchup or a bigger promotional angle. But Prates now has the freshest argument — a violent main-event finish over a former champ, in enemy territory, at exactly the moment the division needs clarity. That timing is doing a lot of work for him. ### Why does the Della Maddalena
