Carlos Prates | Feet On The Ground

“When I stop to think about that, it means a lot and I get really happy, but I don’t think about that a lot,” Prates said on Tuesday afternoon, when asked about his incredible freshman year in the UFC and headlining alongside someone as established and respected as Magny this weekend. “It’s natural going step-by-step; it’s not everything all at one time. I’m feeling happy, but I like to keep my feet on the ground.

“It’s a huge honor to fight him,” he said of Magny, the perennial litmus test for ascending talents in the 170-pound weight class. “Before I signed with the UFC, before I moved to Thailand, I was watching his fights; he’s a really good fighter. He has really good skills, good cardio, good grappling, and it’s an honor to fight against him.

READ: Fight By Fight Preview | UFC Fight Night: Magny vs Prates

“He looks like a really nice guy, but when we step in the cage, nothing is gonna matter — we’re just gonna work. I’m excited to step in the cage and test myself against him.”

Few people expected “The Nightmare” to reach this point so quickly, including Prates himself.

Already 21 fights into his career before venturing to Las Vegas last fall for his Contender Series appearance, Prates began his career showing tremendous inconsistency, alternating wins and losses through 12 consecutive fights at one point to stand at 8-5 overall. Two wins in his next three fights left him at 10-6 — a good, but not great, record given the level of competition he’d faced — and a career spent bouncing through various regional promotions felt like his destiny.

But a trio of wins under the Standout Fight Tournament (SFT) banner, including claiming the promotion’s vacant welterweight title, gave Prates some momentum, resulting in an opportunity to compete on a pair of LFA events in his native Brazil. Registering first-round stoppage wins in each contest alongside a host of other promising talents, many of whom have also since matriculated to the UFC, opened the door for his DWCS appearance.

FULL FIGHTS: Neil Magny vs Mike Malott | Carlos Prates vs Li Jingliang

And the rest, as they say, is history.

“Sometimes I don’t believe (it), but things are going like — I was not planning anything,” he said with a smile, reflecting on what has been one of the better rookie years in recent memory for a fighter coming in from the regional ranks. “I was not planning on signing with UFC and fighting three times in 10 months, but things have been happening, and I just go there, work, and fight when they call me; that’s it.

“I’m a big dreamer. Every fight, when I go to the fight, when I’m gonna start the fight camp, I close my eyes and I can see the judges put my hands up,” he added.

“Judges? You don’t go to the judges,” I interjected with a smile, knowing that all three of his UFC victories have come inside the distance and earned him a Performance of the Night bonus, extending his overall finishing streak to nine and pushing his overall run of victories to 10 straight.

“The referee!” he said with a laugh, apologizing. “I think also it’s a bit of Carlos Prates though, too — I just let things go, go forward, work hard, and that’s it.”

FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X

Prates doesn’t just talk about working hard, though.

A native of Taubate, a city of roughly 320,000 in the state of Sao Paulo, he not only trains at home with his team at Vale Top Team, but also makes the two-hour trek each way repeatedly to the state capital of Sao Paulo to work with the electric Fighting Nerds team that has been on an absolute tear in the UFC as of late.

“I’m from VTT, a team from my city, in Taubate, and every time I train at Fighting Nerds, I need to drive two hours to Sao Paulo,” began Prates, explaining the push that working with the crew that includes Caio Borralho and fellow first year standouts Jean Silva and Mauricio Ruffy gives him. “I drive two hours, train, come back inside the car, two hours to my city to train again at night.

“It’s a big motivation because I train with the best guys — with Caio, with Jean, with Ruffy — and then I go to the car again, another two hours, so when I come to the fights, I cannot lose.

“I did a lot of things, a lot of hard work, and not just training,” he continued, shaking his head at the effort that goes into each day of training in the state capital. “Wake up at six in the morning, drive to Sao Paulo to train at nine, train, and then back to my city; it’s the hardest thing. Sometimes I get to my city at night, and I have no time to eat, to go to my home, to rest because I need to go train again, so it’s a big motivation for me.”

WATCH: Youssef Zalal And Veronica Hardy Join The Latest Episode Of UFC Unfiltered

Thus far, the effort has all be worth it, as Prates has already established himself as a legitimate ascending talent in the welterweight division and stands on the precipice of breaking into the Top 15 if he’s able to add to his win total on Saturday against Magny.

The American veteran has been in this spot many times over, including twice already this year, having opened his 2024 campaign with a win over Mike Malott at UFC 297 in Toronto before falling to unbeaten rising star Michael Morales last time out.

He is the sentry at the gates of the Top 15, and for Prates, a win on Saturday in his first main event will be the perfect way to close out an incredible debut year in the UFC.

“It’s gonna be great,” he said, grinning as he envisioned getting his hand raised again this weekend. “It’s been the best year of my career, and I’m training a lot to beat Neil Magny.

“I’m excited to step there, in the cage, finish the best year of my career. I’m probably gonna knock him out, but we’ll see.”

RELATED: Neil Magny's Top Finishes | Gillian Robertson Submission Tour | Cortavious Romious' Journey Back To The Octagon

Should that come to pass, Prates already knows how he wants to begin his sophomore campaign.

“Of course, I’m gonna ask to fight there after beating Neil Magny,” he said of the February pay-per-view targeted for Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, where his daughter lives. “I’m gonna get the mic, ask to fight in Australia; I have some names on my mind and I can’t wait to get back to Australia, but I’m only gonna think about this fight right now.

“But when I close my eyes, I can see things happening,” he added, smiling. “Everything happens inside our minds and then we start to make things happen (for real).”