has little patience for losing. He has even less interest in winning ugly.




The Brazilian welterweight, known as “The Nightmare”, believes that a victory decided by the judges proves only that he performed better than his opponent on the night. To establish superiority, he says, a fighter must knock out or submit his adversary.




It is a philosophy that has made him one of the most feared finishers in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (), and one that he intends to carry into the biggest fight of his career.




On January 30, 2027, the 33-year-old is scheduled to face Ecuador’s for the interim welterweight championship at UFC 336.




The bout follows a breakdown in negotiations for an undisputed title fight against reigning champion , who indicated that he would not compete in January, preferring to return after Ramadan.




Prates was not particularly pleased with the champion's position. He called Makhachev a “coward”, accused him of backing away from the contest and later described him as “lazy and rich as f***” for not wanting to undertake a training camp. The remarks added a combative edge to an already compelling title picture.




For Prates, however, the prospect of fighting Morales is reason enough to be excited.




“No pressure, no pressure,” Prates told ET Sport during his India visit last week. “I'm the No. 1 contender in the world. January 30, I'm going to step in the , I'm going to knock him out, get my belt and then go to Brazil and celebrate carnival with my friends, my family.”



Swift Rise




Prates has built his career around that kind of clarity. His rise to the top of the division has been remarkably swift. After earning a UFC contract with a second-round knockout on Dana White's Contender Series in August 2023, he made his promotional debut in February 2024. He won all four of his fights that year, stopping every opponent via knockout. Victories over Neil Magny, Geoff Neal and former welterweight champion Leon Edwards, followed by a knockout of Jack Della Maddalena in May 2026, propelled him into the division's elite.




His seven UFC victories have all come by knockout or technical knockout, making him one of the promotion's most prolific finishers. He has also collected seven Performance of the Night bonuses in eight promotional appearances. At 24-7 in professional mixed martial arts, with a 7-1 UFC record, Prates has become a fighter whose opponents cannot afford to switch off for even a moment.



Street Smart




Yet the man behind the finishing record is not quite the character his nickname suggests.




Prates grew up in Taubaté, in Brazil's São Paulo state, raised by his mother after his father died when he was one. His mother worked as a teacher, often leaving him with considerable freedom to spend his days outside. Like many children in Brazil, he played football on the streets, where he said he learnt both good and bad things.




Football was his first sporting obsession. Ronaldo was his favourite player, while Neymar has since become another of his idols. Prates remembers an era when Brazilian footballers such as Romário, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo combined extraordinary talent with flamboyant personalities. He believes the national team has lost some of that character.




“Before they had a lot of gangsters on the team like Romario, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo. They partied, they scored, they beat everybody. You could see that other teams …were scared to play against Brazil,” he said, adding that the Brazilian football has been going through “a bad moment”.




“The players now, they just want travelling, they care about the hair, about the body.”



An escape




Prates own route into professional sport was less a carefully mapped ambition than an escape from a conventional working life.




“I didn't like to study. I didn't like to work,” he said. “Work, I can’t call the boss, like eight hours per day and things like that.”




At 17, he entered a fight, earned some money and began to see a possibility. Fighting could provide an income without requiring him to spend his days working for someone else. He kept competing, eventually discovering that the sport offered something more compelling than financial independence: a chance to become the best in the world.




“I like to compete, I like to win, I want to be the best in the world. So, if I want to show everybody that I am the best, I needed to come to UFC, become a champ,” he said of his reasons to become a UFC fighter.




The ambition is relentless, even if his approach inside the Octagon is measured. Prates says he does not spend much time thinking about his opponent before the fight. Instead, he concentrates on his own game plan, trying to remain calm and execute what he has practised. His striking is his greatest weapon, and he has little appetite for leaving the outcome to the judges.



‘Hardest Moment of Life’




There is, though, one defeat that continues to stand out. In April 2025, Prates lost a unanimous decision to Ian Machado Garry of Republic of Ireland, a result Prates describes as “one of the hardest moments of my life.”




He does not subscribe to the familiar sporting maxim that one either wins or learns. For him, losing is simply losing.




“I really don't like to lose. I really like to compete. I'm a bad loser,” he said. “My opinion is, you don't learn anything when you lose. If you lose, you just lose money and things like that.”




The defeat hurt, but it did not keep him away from competition for long. He was eager to fight again and find his way back to winning.



The Nickname




He credits his friends with giving him the nickname “The Nightmare”. It came from Pesadelo, a character in the Brazilian children's television series , whom they thought he resembled.




Outside the cage, Prates says, the contrast is striking. He describes himself as a calm and friendly person who is keen to enjoy life. Time with family and friends, occasional parties and football provide an escape from the demands of training.




His fighting persona, he insists, is another matter.




“I respect all the guys from my weight division,” he said. “I am going to beat the hell out of them, but I respect them.”




Ask him what he would like people to remember when his career is over, and the answer is less grand than his championship ambitions might suggest.




“I never thought about this, you know. I do not really care about what people are going to think about me after I stop fighting, if they're going to remember or not. I just want to do what I like now. And then when I retire, let's see what's going on,” Prates said.




For now, that means pursuing a championship and adding to a record that has made him one of the division's most dangerous men. The nickname may have come from a children's television character, but the reputation has been earned in the Octagon, one knockout at a time.




And if Prates has his way, his next opponent will become another part of that story.