NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 15: (R-L) Joe Rogan interviews Carlos Prates of Brazil following his win in a welterweight fight during the UFC 322 event at Madison Square Garden on November 15, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa 

A recurring discussion in the MMA community over the last two years has been the lack of star power within the UFC. Currently, the UFC is in a transition period, with A-list fighters such as Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, and Khabib Nurmagomedov having retired. Their next wave of stars, such as Kamaru Usman, Dustin Poirier, Israel Adesanya, Tony Ferguson, and Justin Gaethje, are either retired or towards the end of their career, and the UFC as a promotion has taken a step back in promoting fighters in today’s social media-driven world, where fighters can promote themselves. Interestingly enough, the UFC brand has never been stronger, the sport has never been more competitive, and its MMA has reached a more global scale. Despite having a deeper, more competitive roster of talent and more fighters from across the world, there is no individual A-list Conor McGregor-like talent carrying the promotion on their back.

However, the Fighting Nerds gym in São Paulo, Brazil, is the perfect counterargument to the UFC’s “lack of star problem.” The glasses marketing gimmick, the big personalities, and the excellent showmanship from the Fighting Nerds team have been a boost of energy for the UFC. I have been saying for a while that this team is the stars the MMA fans have been craving. At the forefront of the team’s success is 32-year-old welterweight Carlos Prates. Who, in just 21 months in the UFC, has seven fights, six victories, all by the way of knockout, as well as six performance bonuses. From the UFC’s perspective, Prates is a dream asset: he is charismatic and a colorful figure for the fans and media to follow, who is often seen drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and partying with fans during training camp, which is exceptionally unique for a professional athlete in 2025. He is a highly active fighter who has fought seven times since his UFC debut in February of 2024 and has made it clear he is willing to fight anyone the UFC offers him.

Prates is fully aware of the entertainment side of the business. In his seven UFC appearances, he has delivered every time—always chaotic, always dangerous, always memorable. It takes a certain type of showman to earn six performances of the night bonuses in seven fights.

“I think I’m the most entertaining guy in the welterweight division. So when somebody tries to grapple me, do the boring things, you guys pay to watch violence, to watch blood, yeah? Not boring fights.” Carlos Prates told Joe Rogan and the MSG Crowd following his KO victory over Leon Edwards.

The activity, the elite striking ability, and the one-shot knockout power of Carlos Prates are reminiscent of UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, who many view as the sport’s biggest star. At the end of the day, that’s the style of fighter fans want to see. Casual fans prefer to see elite strikers and highlight-reel knockouts rather than grapplers. There’s a reason why Alex Pereira, Ilia Topuria, and Sean O’Malley are the biggest stars in this sport. Prates represents everything fans want to see in the sport. 

At UFC 322, Prates earned the biggest win of his career with a second-round knockout victory over former welterweight champion Leon Edwards. After losing round one due to Edwards’s superior grappling, Prates showed he was the superior striker in round two, hurting Edwards with a nasty leg kick to start the round. You could hear the impact of Prates’s strikes through the television, and it was shortly afterwards that the inevitable happened: Prates became the first fighter to knock out Leon Edwards in the former welterweight champion’s twenty-nine-fight career. It was Prates’s sixth knockout in the UFC, the most of any UFC fighter since his arrival in 2024.

It remains to be seen if Carlos Prates has what it takes to become the UFC welterweight champion, especially in a division with an all-time pound-for-pound great in Islam Makhachev as champion, along with several worthy contenders such as Michael Morales, Ian Machado, Garry, and Shavkat  Rakhmonov. Does Prates have the skills to beat elite grapplers such as Shavkat Rakhmonov and Islam Makhachev? After struggling against lesser-skilled grapplers such as Leon Edwards and Ian Machado Garry, there is reason to be concerned about Prates’ chances of becoming a UFC champion in the sport’s deepest and most talented division. Without a championship, Prates’s star power can only go so far beyond the MMA community. Nonetheless, Prates has proven two things in his two years in the UFC: He is must-watch TV, and he can knock out anyone in the division with just one shot.