Carlos Prates asked for Islam Makhachev, and the UFC may be about to give him exactly that. Makhachev vs. Prates is being discussed as a potential matchup for UFC 336 on January 30 in Toronto, according to reporter @KOlmeneroMMA, whose report was shared on X by Championship Rounds. Nothing has been announced, no bout agreements have been reported, and the UFC hasn’t commented. For now this is a rumor, but it’s a rumor with a date and a city attached, which puts it a few steps ahead of most of the fantasy booking floating around this week.
The timing is hilarious. Just days before the report surfaced, MMA Mania posted about a drunken Prates calling out Makhachev and announcing he was “Coming to dethrone the pound-for-pound king.” MMA Mania framed Prates as a “Wrestler’s worst nightmare!” in that same post, which is a bold label to slap on anybody standing across from Makhachev.
Where Makhachev stands
Makhachev is the guy everybody calls the pound-for-pound king for a reason. He cleaned out the lightweight division, moved up to 170 and won the welterweight title, then defended it at UFC 330 against Ian Garry. According to EssentiallySports, that run carried him past Anderson Silva’s 16-fight win streak record. His next appearance would be the second defense of his welterweight belt.
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Even his rivals’ rivals measure themselves against him. Ahead of his UFC 333 featherweight title fight with Movsar Evloev on October 24 in Abu Dhabi, Alexander Volkanovski pointed to his loss to Makhachev as the only time anyone narrowly beat him across 25 minutes, Bloody Elbow reported.
Outside the cage, Makhachev’s week was busy. Valentina Shevchenko posted on X that Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov met with him, and a post of Makhachev showing off his cat, Toni, landed among r/MMA’s most upvoted threads of the week. Fans have also been campaigning for Bruce Buffer to give him the “The One. The Only” introduction Buffer has used for Alex Pereira, with one writing, “Pereira has it and Islam doesn’t, yeah give me a break.”
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The calendar
UFC 335 comes first in December, with Pereira facing Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event. UFC 336 in Toronto follows on January 30, and if this report holds, Makhachev and Prates could headline the first big pay-per-view of 2027.
My take: book it yesterday. I’m a sucker for a fighter who calls his shot, and Prates didn’t ask for a ranked contender or a tune-up. He asked for the most dangerous man in the sport while apparently a few drinks deep, which is either legendary confidence or a decision he’ll be reliving at 4 a.m. on January 31. Makhachev doesn’t need trash talk to beat anybody, but a guy openly promising to dethrone him gives this fight the villain-versus-champion juice that a safe title defense never would. Now Prates has to back it up, and Toronto would be a hell of a place to find out if he can.
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