Carlos Prates has been popped for performance de-hancing drugs.
The newly-ranked welterweight contender recently admitted to smoking nearly a dozen cigarettes per day, which may seem like small potatoes for those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s, but for an elite athlete at the top of his game, his addiction comes as a surprising revelation.
I guess if it ain’t broke…
“Bro, maybe eight per day, 10, 11,” Prates told Ariel Helwani. “Before [my coaches] tell me a lot [to stop], but now [they don’t]. I tried to stop one time. I was one week without smoking. Then I gained five kilos in six days because I eat a lot and didn’t come to the gym to train. The last cigarette I smoke before I come to APEX. You cannot smoke anything there, you cannot drink anything there — just water, what they give to you.”
Referee Keith Peterson would be proud.
“I think I started to smoke when I was 12 or 13,” Prates previously told Renato Moicano. “Not like today, of course. But after the pandemic, you know, everything stopped, the training stopped, the fights stopped, and I was smoking weed a lot, and that would bring bad feelings. And then I started only smoking cigarettes. I remember like I was on the street all day. My mom goes out for work, and my family is only me and my mom. Here in Brazil, if you’re living on the street with your friends, you’re gonna learn a lot of bad things.”
Prates insists he’s a fighter, not an athlete.
The 31 year-old “Nightmare” improved to 21-6 after Neil Magny got his ash kicked (har har) atop the UFC Vegas 100 fight card last weekend in Las Vegas. Including his finish on Dana White’s “Contender Series” back in summer 2023, Prates is now 5-0 inside the Octagon with five straight knockouts.
No ifs, ands, or butts (I’ll see myself out).