Carlos Prates respects Ian Machado Garry, but 'still has business to do'

Carlos Prates hopes to cross paths with Ian Machado Garry – this time, for the UFC title.

Prates (24-7 MMA, 7-1 UFC) emerged as a top title contender when he dominated former champion Jack Della Maddalena (18-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 275 main event at RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia..

The Brazlian's lone octagon loss came to Machado Garry (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC), who is expected to challenge UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev next. Prates plans on waiting for his opportunity after back-to-back knockouts of ex-champs Leon Edwards and now Della Maddalena.

"I should be next," Prates told reporters during the UFC Fight Night 275 post-fight news conference. "Nobody beat two former champs in a really good way. They never lost by knockout, and then I come there and make it look easy. All respect to them – they are tough. But against Leon, against JDM, I made it look easy, and I'm next. Of course you have (Michael) Morales, but Morales didn't fight a former champ. I fought two former champs, so I will be next."

Machado Garry pitched an idea of a title-fight rematch with Prates should he dethrone Makhachev.

"We talk sometimes, and he called me a month and a half ago," Prates said in response to Machado Garry. "We were talking about life, the fights, and he said, 'Hey brother, you need to beat JDM, then I'm going to beat Islam, and then we can do a rematch in Brazil. It would be amazing.'

"I'm not sure if it can happen in Brazil, but of course it would be really cool to fight Islam because he is No. 1 pound-for-pound. Of course, it's still business to do against Ian. He beat me, and I don't like that. We have respect for each other, we talk a lot."

Machado Garry used his wrestling to take down Prates four times en route to a decision win. Prates almost rallied late when he had Machado Garry hurt, but it was too little too late. The Brazilian, who has since scored three-straight knockouts, is confident a rematch would go differently.

"If I fight him (again), the fight won't go 25 minutes," Prates said. "After I lost to him, I learned a lot of things. I think you guys can see how different I am inside the octagon. Let's do it. I hope he beats Islam. I think it's a really hard fight, of course, but I think he has some skills to beat Islam. Let's go – let's do this. I will be there watching. The fight is going to be two days before my birthday, so I'm going to ask the UFC as a birthday gift to bring me to the fight and let me watch."