Carlos Prates showed his bathroom mirror where he wrote nearly every morning that he would knock out Jack Della Maddalena. The affirmations included statements like "I will knock out JDM," "I will beat JDM," and "I will become champion." Prates explained that the fight didn't start on Saturday, but several months ago when he began writing these messages. What happened on Saturday had been written down long before. The revelation offers insight into Prates' mental preparation and visualization techniques leading up to his victory over Della Maddalena.
Carlos Prates has revealed that his knockout victory over Jack Della Maddalena was months in the making — written, quite literally, on his bathroom mirror.
The Brazilian welterweight shared images of affirmations he had written nearly every morning in the lead-up to the fight, with messages including "I will knock out JDM," "I will beat JDM," and "I will become champion." Prates was clear that the contest did not begin when the cage door closed on Saturday, but rather when he started putting those words on the mirror several months earlier. What unfolded on fight night, he explained, had already been committed to paper long before.
Prates, known as "The Nightmare," carries a 24-7 record and competes out of Vale Top Team in Brazil. The 32-year-old stands six-foot-one with a 78-inch reach — one of the longer frames in the welterweight division. He strikes at 55 percent accuracy and held the number-five divisional ranking heading into the contest.
Della Maddalena, 29, entered as the fourth-ranked welterweight and the 13th-ranked fighter pound for pound. The Australian representative of Scrappy MMA brought a 18-4 record and one of the more prolific striking outputs in the division at 5.57 significant strikes landed per minute. His 73-inch reach and switch stance made him a dynamic and dangerous opponent on paper.
Why it matters
- Prates' win moves him up from fifth in the welterweight rankings and puts him squarely in title contention conversations
- The loss snaps Della Maddalena's momentum as a top-five welterweight and a ranked pound-for-pound fighter
- The matchup pitted two switch-stance strikers against each other, with Prates' reach advantage of five inches proving a potentially decisive factor
- The mental preparation story adds a human dimension to a division increasingly crowded with elite-level talent
