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UFC Tonight: What You Need To Know About The UFC Kansas City Card

UFC Tonight: What You Need To Know About The UFC Kansas City Card

Forbes26-04-2025

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - APRIL 25: (L-R) Ian Machado Garry of Ireland and Carlos Prates of Brazil ... More face off during the UFC Fight Night ceremonial weigh-in at the Midland Theatre on April 25, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC)
Tonight, Saturday, April 26, the UFC is at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri for the UFC Kansas City fight card. In tonight's UFC Fight Night main event, Ian Machado Garry looks to bounce back from a December decision loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov against Carlos Prates. Prates is 4-0 under the UFC banner with four knockouts and four 'Performance of the Night' bonuses. In the evening's co-main event, former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith looks to end a two-fight losing skid in what he says will be his retirement fight. Smith faces Zhang Mingyang in that 205-pound matchup. Below is the important information you need to know about tonight's UFC Kansas City fight card.
Ian Machado Garry (15-1) has an 8-1 record under the UFC banner. The 27-year-old has five decisions and three knockouts. In June 2024, Machado Garry defeated Michael 'Venom' Page at UFC 303 to earn his eighth straight win under the UFC banner. However, he tasted defeat in his next outing, dropping a decision to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.
Machado Garry initially came across as a Conor McGregor clone, but the confident Irish fighter has found his own personality as a competitor who is more than willing to take on the toughest the competitors the UFC can book him against, something he did again in accepting this fight on short notice.
Machado Garry is the No. 7 ranked UFC welterweight.
Carlos Prates (21-6) joined the UFC in 2023 with a knockout win on a Dana White's Contender Series card. Since then, the 31-year-old has gone 4-0 with the UFC, winning each of those fights by knockout. Prates also earned performance bonuses for each of his four knockouts. In his most recent outings, Prates scored an August 2024 stoppage of Li Jingliang before moving on to defeat Neal Magny via TKO on a UFC Fight Night Card in November.
Prates, a member of The Fighting Nerds team, is on an 11-fight winning streak overall.
The UFC had Prates booked to face Geoff Neal at UFC 314, but that fight fell apart when Neal withdrew from the contest in late March. With that, Prates was moved to the top of this fight card when Garry agreed to face him on short notice.
Prates is the No. 13 fighter in the UFC's official 170-pound rankings.
Machado Garry is the more technical striker of the two fighters in the UFC Kansas City main event, and while Prates gets hit a lot, his opponent is not the type of fighter who carries single-strike stopping power into this bout, Prates is that type of fighter. When you add that power to Machado Garry's somewhat reckless defense, things begin to look dicey for the fighter who accepted this bout on short notice.
I'll tip my hat to Machado Garry for taking this fight coming off a big loss, that shows a lot of confidence. However, I don't believe he walks out of T-Mobile Center with the win.
The betting pick is for Carlos Prates to beat Ian Machado Garry by knockout.
Saturday, April 26
Prelims: 6:00 p.m. ET
Main Card: 9:00 p.m. ET
T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO
Prelims: ESPN+
Main Card: ESPN2
Ian Machado Garry vs. Carlos Prates
Anthony Smith vs. Zhang Mingyang
Giga Chikadze vs. David Onama
Michel Pereira vs. Abusupiyan Magomedov
Randy Brown vs. Nicolas Dalby
Ikram Aliskerov vs. André Muniz
Matt Schnell vs. Jimmy Flick
Evan Elder vs. Gauge Young
Chris Gutiérrez vs. John Castañeda
Da'Mon Blackshear vs. Alatengheili
Malcolm Wellmaker vs. Cameron Saaiman
Jaqueline Amorim vs. Polyana Viana
Timothy Cuamba vs. Roberto Romero
Chelsea Chandler vs. Joselyne Edwards
We will have more on the UFC Kansas City fight card and the Ian Machado Garry vs. Carlos Prates fight as fight night nears, including full fight card results for tonight's event.

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