“Stop smoking” - Former UFC lightweight contender expresses his concern over Carlos Prates’ smoking habit after UFC Kansas City defeat

Carlos Prates suffered his first-ever defeat in the UFC after Ian Machado Garry secured a unanimous win over the fighter at UFC Kansas City on April 26, 2025. Prates kicked off his UFC career with a 4-fight winning streak before finally losing to Garry. While the fighter was seen in a raging form towards the final round, however, it didn’t really add to his scorecard for the bout. Former UFC lightweight contender Josh Thomson and MMA referee John McCarthy analyzed the fight and believed that Prates’ vice in the form of his smoking habit played against the fighter in diverting the fight towards Garry’s favor.
A heavy chain smoker, Carlos Prates is known to smoke 10-15 cigarettes a day. The fighter was even getting a few puffs in between the rounds of his previous fights. Despite the fact that Prates had cut down on the number of cigarettes per day in recent times, however, the long term habit was finally seen catching up to him within the Octagon getting the fighter exhausted in between the rounds.
Former UFC lightweight contender Josh Thomson picked up on this habit of Prates and criticized it stating the habit to be one of the major reasons for the fighter’s defeat.
“The lesson that I learned by watching Prates, you should probably stop smoking. You were so close. If you quit smoking, you’d have a little more output”

While John McCarthy was quite impressed by the performance put up by Prates despite his smoking habit, the former MMA referee went on to analyze the movement pattern of Gary that frustrates his opponent while looking for an attack to land in.
“One of the things that you gotta give it to Ian Garry is that his movement is a pain in the ass. If you have ever fought someone that moves a lot and you are trying to chase him down. You are trying to cut the ring off. Cut the cage off. And it’s frustrating because you can never get yourself in that position where you can land a clean shot.”
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Garry secured a unanimous win over Prates, and this might shake up the rankings within the welterweight division now. Despite the defeat, Prates’ final round show was quite a spectacle for the audience present there. He was in a dominating position and such a stance throughout all the previous rounds might have even pushed the results in the fighter’s favor.