Carlos Prates is still not over January. In an exclusive with LowKickMMA published Thursday, the Brazilian sent another warning to Islam Makhachev, this time built around what the outlet’s headline called a “way I like to hurt” claim. It is the latest in a week of shots Prates has fired at the champion over a fight that never happened.
The first shots came Monday. In comments relayed by Laerte Viana and shared by Championship Rounds on X, Prates accused Makhachev of backing out of their January date and promised a worse beating whenever they do meet. “I’m going to come back and beat Makhachev twice as badly as I was going to before. Just so he learns his lesson and stops being such a coward,” Prates said.
He also claimed the promotion was unhappy. “The UFC was pissed. They didn’t like it,” he said, before laying out his view of a champion’s obligations. “If you don’t want to fight, vacate your belt and that’s it.” Prates added that if Makhachev wasn’t sure about January, he should have kept quiet, saying it would have been less bad to fake an injury than to talk about the fight and then walk away from it.
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Dana White fills in the gap
On Wednesday, Dana White gave Prates’ version some backing. Speaking to TheMacLife, White said Makhachev had verbally agreed to face Prates in January before withdrawing. “Yeah, it was verbally agreed,” White said. He didn’t sound eager to guess at Makhachev’s reasoning. “Who knows what he’s thinking or what he wants to do next,” he said.
White then made a point about activity that will land in plenty of title pictures. “I like when guys fight a lot. I don’t expect you to fight 3 times a year, but twice would be nice,” he said. “You start to back up the division. There’s lots of guys who would like a shot for the title.”
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Prates kept it going online. According to a Championship Rounds post on Thursday, he reposted a quote Makhachev gave at the UFC Performance Institute with three lying-face emojis. That was the whole message.
No new date for Prates vs. Makhachev has been announced, and none of the sources say why Makhachev withdrew or what he plans to do instead. Until either changes, the matchup lives only in Prates’ interviews and White’s comments.
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My take: Prates has the better of the argument on paper, because the promoter himself just confirmed there was a verbal yes. But calling a man a coward and suggesting he fake an injury sells a feud more than it builds a case, and we don’t know what sat behind Makhachev’s decision. White’s line about guys stacking up behind the belt deserves the attention. If the champion won’t commit to a date, Prates won’t be the only contender filling notebooks with complaints, and the promotion will have to make a call that’s bigger than one canceled January booking.
