Machado Garry sends message to doubters after accepting Prates bout

If the UFC ever needs a short-notice opponent to step into a five-round welterweight matchup, Ian Machado Garry knows a reliable source the UFC can call.

“You call me. Why? Because I’m a real fighter who wants to fight the best in the world,” Garry said in a social media video Wednesday in his first public comments since accepting a fight with a feared knockout artist on a hot streak. “I’m going to show everybody how good I am. Carlos Prates is awesome, but this is my world. I love to fight. There’s nothing more I love in this world than fighting.”

This is the second consecutive opponent Machado Garry has agreed to face on less than a month’s notice.

The talkative 27-year-old from Ireland is coming off his first pro loss — a five-round decision to Shavkat Rakhmanov in the UFC 310 co-main in December — that saw his stock within the division stay level regardless of the loss.

Not many fighters were raising their hand to face Rakhmanov at the time yet Machado Garry stepped up to the challenge on roughly three weeks’ notice

Machado Garry lost 48-47 (three rounds to two) to Rakhmanov on all scorecards but won Round 3 and Round 5 and had his opponent in trouble in the final round as he attacked with a rear-naked choke attempt.

Prates had been scheduled to face Geoff Neal at UFC 314 in Miami later this month, but Neal pulled out with an injury.

Instead of keeping Prates on that card, though, the UFC shifted the streaking Brazilian to the upcoming April 26 UFC Fight Night event in Kansas City, Mo., after a previously announced main event matchup between Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr., was cancelled with Hill injured.

Prates has won his last 11 pro bouts, all by stoppage, and is 4-0 with four knockouts since joining the UFC early in 2024.

The 31-year-old finished Trevin Giles, Charles Radtke, Li Jingliang and Neil Magny and has risen to No. 13 in the welterweight contender rankings. All four of Prates’s UFC wins have earned him a Performance of the Night bonus. 

Matchups currently set for UFC Kansas City:

— Ian Machado Garry vs. Carlos Prates

— Anthony Smith vs. Zhang Mingyang

— Giga Chikadze vs. David Onama

— Michel Pereira vs. Abusupiyan Magomedov

— Ikram Aliskerov vs. Andre Muniz

— Randy Brown vs. Nicolas Dalby

— Matt Schnell vs. Jimmy Flick

— Evan Elder vs. Ahmad Sohail Hassanzada

— Jaqueline Amorim vs. Polyana Viana

— Malcolm Wellmaker vs. Cameron Saaiman– Chelsea Chandler vs. Joselyne Edwards