The UFC and Dana White are headed to Kansas City for UFC on ESPN 66! The main event for the card? A highly anticipated clash between two rising stars in the welterweight division, Ian Garry and Carlos Prates. Both fighters are chasing more than a win. They’re chasing a moment. For Garry, it’s the next step in his climb back from a tough loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov. A fight where he proved he has the grit to go five hard rounds and still threaten late.
For Prates, it’s a chance to prove his highlight-reel knockouts aren’t just hype—they’re prophecy. As the two welterweight warriors met for the last time before their main event clash, UFC boss Dana White stood mere feet away when things took a dark, dangerous turn!
Ian Garry and Carlos Prates leave Dana White stunned with their final face-off exchange
The final face-off between Ian Garry and Carlos Prates wasn’t just promotional fluff. It was raw and terrifyingly real. With his trademark confidence, the Irishman proclaimed, “I am ready to kill.”
Prates didn’t blink and, without missing a beat, fired back by stating, “And are you ready to die? Kill is easy. But are you ready to die? I’m ready to die.”
You could almost feel the temperature drop. Dana White stood in the middle and kept his hand between the two fighters, anticipating a boiling over of emotions, but that never came. The two then separated before Garry reached out for a final handshake, and the UFC CEO may have been wondering if he witnessed the spark that comes before a storm.
After all, this isn’t just another fight night. It’s a collision of rising stars, a thunderstorm of violence waiting to erupt. The welterweight division is shifting, and with Belal Muhammad set to defend his title at UFC 315, the hungry wolves beneath him are fighting for their piece of the throne. That’s where Garry and Prates come in.
Ian Machado Garry: “I am ready to kill.”
Carlos Prates: “Are you ready to die?”
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) April 25, 2025
Even in his lone loss against the boogeyman of the division, Shavkat Rakhmonov, Ian Garry showed resilience, heart, and flashes of brilliance. A five-round war where he nearly pulled off a late submission? That’s the stuff future champions are made of.
But this time, standing across the Octagon from him, will be ‘The Nightmare’.
Carlos Prates didn’t tiptoe into the UFC—he exploded onto the scene with a knockout on Dana White’s Contender Series. And since that debut? Four knockouts. Four performance bonuses.
With both men carrying a chip on their shoulders, the main event of UFC on ESPN 66 promises fireworks. And according to Ian Garry, this fight might be the end of the ‘old guard’ of the welterweight division, as he recently unleashed a verbal inferno on the top names in the division!
‘The Future’ takes aim at welterweight veterans for “trying to to stay relevant”
Ian Garry doesn’t mince words. But this time, he came with a flamethrower—and the targets were Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington. In a recent interview with Shakiel Mahjouri, ‘The Future’ accused the veterans of the division of clinging to relevance through headlines instead of their actions inside the Octagon.
Garry bluntly stated, “We’re getting out with the old and in with the new. We’re getting rid of these people that are just trying to stay relevant like Kamaru and Colby, just trying to maintain relevancy by just talking on podcasts and trying to slag off Paddy Pimblett.”
To Garry, the game has changed. And the old kings? They’ve already lost their crowns. Still, he didn’t stop there. The Irishman added names like Leon Edwards and Gilbert Burns into the discussion, not with the same disdain, but with a similar sense of finality.
Instead, Garry pointed to the rising storm of talent flooding into the rankings as he stated, “The likes of me, Prates, (Michael) Morales, Sean Brady, Shavkat (Rakhmonov), Jack (Della Maddalena), and you’re just seeing what the welterweight division is turning into for the next decade because these guys, they’re going to be around for a long time.”
So, what’s really on the line in Kansas City? More than just rankings. More than just bragging rights. It’s a battle for the two rising stars to cement their place in the future of the division. Will Ian Garry prove he’s the heir to the throne? Or will Carlos Prates crash the party with another soul-snatching knockout? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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