There are major title implications for the welterweight division Saturday in Perth, Australia.
Former champion Jack Della Maddalena begins his road back to the title with the unenviable task of taking on rangy knockout artist Carlos Prates in a UFC Fight Night main event.
The five-round, 170-pound contest headlines a 13-bout card at RAC Arena where Della Maddalena will have a significant home-cage advantage.
The 29-year-old Perth native has only fought in Australia once during his UFC tenure. He got his hand raised via first-round submission of Randy Brown at UFC 284 in Perth three years ago and now returns to the city as a popular ex-champ and the current No. 1 contender at welterweight.
Unlike most UFC events that take place in Australia, this weekend’s start time is not catered to a North American audience. Instead, the local crowd will get to experience the event in primetime, while fans in Canada and the United States will be watching the fights with their morning coffee.
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This will be Della Maddalena’s third consecutive UFC main event but his first non-title headliner, while it’s Prates’ third UFC Fight Night main event in the past year-and-a-half.
It’s also only the second welterweight main event of 2026 thus far, which is somewhat surprising considering it was considered the most interesting weight class to watch heading into the year with a new champion atop the rankings and a growing list of promising contenders searching for their first crack at UFC gold.
Prates shone in his first headline spot late in 2024 when he slept Neil Magny with a punch in Round 1. His second main event saw him suffer the first and only loss of his UFC career to Ian Machado Garry 12 months ago. That five-round decision loss was Prates’ first setback since 2019, yet he ended that one strong by nearly stopping Machado Garry in the final round.
Between almost finishing Machado Garry in the waning moments, plus the fact that matchup was put together on less than a month’s notice, Prates’ stock didn’t drop significantly within the 170-pound rankings. He enters the weekend as the No. 5 contender.
Machado Garry was busier than Prates in their matchup and he used a more varied attack, mixing in multiple takedown attempts in four out of the five rounds — a game plan Della Maddalena might be wise to emulate.
Della Maddalena defeated Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 last May to become a UFC champion, but failed to defend the belt and had his 18-fight winning streak snapped by Islam Makhachev via decision at UFC 322 in November.
Brazil’s Prates, 32, has rebounded from his loss to Machado Garry with back-to-back highlight-reel knockouts of Geoff Neal and former champion Leon Edwards.
Prates is 6-1 in the UFC with all six of his victories by knockout or technical knockout. His win over Edwards sent a message to the rest of the division.
“Defence has to absolutely be switched on,” Della Maddalena said earlier this week when analyzing his dangerous opponent in an interview with the UFC on Paramount. “There can’t be any lulls in the focus on being defensively sound. As you can see, he can really put you down and put you down in a bad way.”
Della Maddalena, who hasn’t been finished since beginning his pro career 0-2 a decade ago, added that he also can’t get “shelled up” and focused solely on avoiding Prates’ threats in the cage. He couldn’t land much offence as he was controlled by Makhachev for 25 minutes five months ago.
Stylistically, Della Maddalena likely won’t have to worry about the takedown threat from Prates this weekend. Prates has only attempted a single takedown in his entire UFC career, which he secured on Magny before later knocking him out.
Half of Della Maddalena’s eight UFC wins have been by KO/TKO, yet it’s Prates that’ll have the power edge during striking exchanges.
Both fighters are strikers first and switch stances during their bouts, so fight fans can expect to see high-level setups, combinations and footwork.
Della Maddalena averages 5.57 significant strikes per minute, landing at 51 per cent accuracy, compared to only 3.77 at 55 per cent accuracy for Prates. JDM also has more fortified defence, absorbing only 3.84 significant strikes per minute. Prates actually has a negative significant strike differential absorbing 4.53 significant strikes per minute. When he lands, though, it can be lights out.
The UFC’s most recent trip to Perth was in September when Carlos Ulberg knocked out Dominick Reyes in the main event to position himself to fight for a title. He took advantage and won gold earlier this month at UFC 327. The winner of Saturday’s main event will be hoping for a similar statement win that puts them in a title-shot scenario.
Saturday marks the fourth consecutive year the UFC has held an event at RAC Arena. Below is the projected bout order for UFC Perth (subject to change):
— Jack Della Maddalena vs. Carlos Prates
— Beneil Dariush vs. Quillan Salkilld
— Tim Elliott vs. Steve Erceg
— Shamil Gaziev vs. Brando Pericic
— Tai Tuivasa vs. Louie Sutherland
— Cameron Rowston vs. Robert Bryczek
— Junior Tafa vs. Kevin Christian
— Jacob Malkoun vs. Gerald Meerschaert
— Colby Thicknesse vs. Vince Morales
— Ben Johnston vs. Wesley Schultz
— Jonathan Micallef vs. Themba Gorimbo
— Dom Mar Fan vs. Kody Steele
— Marwan Rahiki vs. Ollie Schmid