Tomorrow night, the UFC returns to Kansas City with a great card. The main event will feature two welterweight title hopefuls as Ian Machado Garry (15-1) takes on Carlos Prates (21-6). Garry will be looking to get back on track while Prates will be looking to continue his run towards the top of the welterweight division.

The last time we saw Garry was back in December when he faced Shavkat Rakhmonov in a title eliminator. Rakhmonov was a fight that nobody wanted but Garry had no hesitation in taking the fight. While nobody had been able to give Rakhmonov a tough fight, Garry took him to the distance and nearly submitted him in the fifth round. He ultimately fell short by decision but it was the first loss of his career. Overall, he’s 8-1 inside the octagon.

Standing across from him tomorrow night will be Carlos Prates. Prates earned a UFC contract on The Contender Series back in 2023. A member of the popular Fighting Nerds camp, Prates has gone a very impressive 4-0 inside the octagon with four knockouts. He will look to continue his finish streak tomorrow night which he hopes propels him to title contention.

UFC Kansas City Prediction

If this fight was a couple of years ago in terms of the way they fought, I’d love Carlos Prates in this matchup. While Ian Garry has really solid striking, I love the overall striking and power of Carlos Prates. While this fight is on the feet, I still really like Carlos Prates.

However, Garry has really impressed me recently with his ability to mix things up. When he wasn’t beating MVP on the feet, he took him down. We saw him have success grappling Shavkat Rakhmonov late in their fight and I think we can see him have grappling success at UFC Kansas City.

Garry also has five-round experience and we haven’t seen Prates go into the later rounds. His cardio is a little unknown and for that and Garry’s overall game, I like the Irishman in this matchup.