Conor McGregor is officially back in full media mode ahead of his big return at UFC 329, and the former two-division champion is already accusing the UFC of playing mind games. Ahead of his welterweight fight against Max Holloway on July 11 in Las Vegas, ‘The Notorious’ claims the UFC used a terrifying boogeyman to scare him into going back to the lightweight division. The name in question? Rising 170-pound killer Carlos Prates.

According to Conor McGregor, the UFC floated the Brazilian knockout artist as a possible opponent, but the Irishman believes it was a bluff meant to force his hand.

“They said to me about [Prates],” he told Ariel Helwani. “I said, ‘Yeah, no problem. Send the contract.’ So I’m saying yeah for about two weeks. Where’s the contract? No contract came. Do you know what it was? They wanted me back down at 155 pounds.”

According to ‘The Notorious,’ the earlier interaction was nothing but a test, suggesting he was willing to accept any name thrown at him in order to get back to action. However, the lack of a legitimate contract convinced him that the Dana White-led promotion was simply throwing scary welterweights at him to make a return to lightweight seem like the better option.

Conor McGregor has spent the majority of his career dominating the featherweight and lightweight divisions, with only a few bouts above it. Max Holloway is also in the same boat, having built his resume at 145 before jumping to 155. So, the UFC likely wanted them both to remain at 155 lbs, something that would make future matchups with other top contenders an easy task considering the level of competition that already exists at lightweight. But it appears McGregor was not open to returning to the 155 lbs division given his weight gain and time away from competition.

Booking them against each other at 170 pounds sounds like a fan-friendly experiment, but putting ‘The Notorious’ against Carlos Prates, a proven 6′ 1″ welterweight knockout artist, would have been a very different kind of risk. After all, he is called ‘The Nightmare’ for a reason.

The Brazilian is one of the most dangerous welterweight fighters, with 24 career wins, 19 of which came via KO or TKO. The lethal finisher has been on a tear, recently stopping top-tier talent such as former champion Jack Della Maddalena, Leon Edwards, and Geoff Neal.

For Conor McGregor, the detour through the Carlos Prates rumors was yet another bump on his long journey back to the cage. Ever since fracturing his tibia against Dustin Poirier, the Irishman’s comeback has faced delay after delay—most notably pulling out of UFC 303 due to a broken toe.

As a result, McGregor admitted to Ariel Helwani that he had to reconsider his training approach this time around.

“I learned a lesson in that lapse in concentration in the (UFC 303) camp in preparation that I have since adjusted,” McGregor said. “When that last bout was set, we had the UFC’s cameras come over three weeks before the bout, no protective gear whatsoever, a flow spar, the cameras are on, there’s a little bit of intensity.

“The baby toe cracked, and that was excruciating pain. I had to take it on the chin—take this lesson, implement it, wear protective gear, make sure the entire team is aware and we’re discussing what type of training session this is. We’ve done that, the body is right, I’m rested, my head is sharp, my body is fresh.”

While Conor McGregor is busy using the whole contract and comeback situation as promotional leverage, Carlos Prates looks at the entire situation with a massive dose of reality instead.

Carlos Prates never had his hopes up for Conor McGregor’s return despite big claims

The Brazilian claims that he never expected to receive a contract to go one-on-one against Conor McGregor because the matchup made no sense for a superstar of the Irishman’s stature.

“The only thing that I heard from Conor was that my name was there, and nobody knew if he would accept it or not,” Prates said during an interview with Nicolas Henrique. “It’s something I didn’t get my hopes up for because I already knew it was a fight that wasn’t going to happen.”

To make matters more interesting, ‘The Nightmare’ was brutally honest about where both men stood in their careers, pointing out that throwing a guy who has been essentially inactive for five years into the Octagon with a relentless knockout artist like him would’ve been just bad business. So, he claims the Irishman wouldn’t even have accepted the fight, unlike what he recently claimed.

“I’m a guy who’s been knocking everyone out, and the guy has been inactive for five years,” he added. “There’s no reason for him to come fight. I’ve never been a champion. I’m not close to him. I’m nobody, man. There’s no reason for him to come take such a big risk.

“I knew that the fight was very difficult to happen. It was difficult for him to accept. There were rumors saying he accepted, but I don’t believe it. If he had accepted, the UFC would have made the fight happen.”

And to be fair, fight fans too would agree to his logic after seeing Prates brutally finish former welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena in Perth. So, for him, Conor McGregor as an opponent never made sense. In fact, he believes it would be Max Holloway who walks away with his hands raised at UFC 329.

“No, I think Max is going to win,” Prates said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I’m a super fan of Max Holloway. He’s fighting more, like McGregor has been five years without a fight. So, I don’t think he’s going to beat Max Holloway.”

According to ‘The Nightmare,’ he expects Max Holloway to do the job effortlessly, despite the fact that ‘Blessed’ is stepping up to 170 pounds for the first time. Whether Carlos Prates’ prediction proves accurate remains to be seen, but the Brazilian is plainly skeptical of McGregor’s long-awaited return and all the claims he makes surrounding it.