Carlos Prates has never looked like the kind of fighter coaches love to hold up as a model athlete. He smokes freely, drinks without apology, parties without fear, makes jokes, and carries himself more like a rock star than a martial artist.

In a sport almost obsessed with discipline, clean living, and “warrior codes,” Prates is often criticized by coaches and trainers for refusing to live a true samurai lifestyle like fellow fighters such as Jiri Prochazka.

And after UFC Perth, ‘The Nightmare’ decided to address them directly. Not with a properly crafted message or an inspiring speech, but with a cigarette in hand, sipping a drink, and a mocking grin on Instagram. Calling his critics “Instagram Samurai,” Prates laughed at the idea that he should suddenly become a role model.

“Hey guys, you’re all Instagram Samurai,” he said in his native Portuguese. “You don’t like bad examples this week. You know this week is just going to be this. Look, get out of here. Get out of here.

“This week is just going to be a party, fireworks, partying, bar talk with friends, talking nonsense, jokes, everyone drunk, and a total mess. Forget it. Samurai, samurai, I don’t like to set a good example. Get out of here. This weekend, man, it’s just going to be entertainment.”

It was sarcastic, rebellious, and fully in character—a direct rejection of the clean-cut fighter image that others constantly try to impose on him. The problem for his critics is simple: he keeps winning their argument for him.

Carlos Prates delivered the kind of performance at UFC Perth that makes lifestyle debates feel secondary. ‘The Nightmare’ walked into enemy territory against former champ Jack Della Maddalena, absorbed early pressure, and slowly broke the Aussie down with swift counters, nasty kicks, punishing elbows, and some heavy hands before finishing him decisively in the third round.

The same fighter who was previously chastised for smoking and partying now looks every bit like a legitimate title contender at welterweight. And this leaves the sport wrestling with an uncomfortable truth: Carlos Prates may not live like a samurai, but when the cage door closes, he fights like one.

In fact, with his brutal finishes, ‘The Nightmare’ seems to have caught the attention of the champion, Islam Makhachev, who took time out to send a 4-word message.

Islam Makhachev reacts to Carlos Prates’ win over Jack Della Maddalena

For a fighter who openly rejects the strict, machine-like lifestyle many champions swear by, the Brazilian is beginning to earn respect from the one man who embodies that discipline fully. Islam Makhachev was paying attention as ‘The Nightmare’ ripped down Jack Della Maddalena this past weekend, and the welterweight champion made sure to appreciate what he had just witnessed.

“Good job Nutella cake,” he jokingly wrote on X.

The joke comes from when Makhachev previously saw Carlos Prates eating Nutella cake during a weight cut, which shocked the strictly disciplined Dagestani champion.

At the time, it was a humorous clash of two completely different fighter mindsets. However, after ‘The Nightmare’ brutally defeated a former champion, that same nickname now feels less like mockery and more like respect between elites. And that is significant because Carlos Prates is no longer just a scary contender; he is now solidly in the title picture.

With talks swirling around Islam Makhachev’s first defense against names like Ian Machado Garry, Prates has forced the division to pay attention through sheer violence. More importantly, he caught the champion’s attention.

In a crowded welterweight division, this could be the clearest indication yet that ‘The Nightmare’ is getting closer to the biggest fight of his career.