Dana White doesn’t usually put his pound-for-pound king on blast at a press conference. When he does, you know the private phone calls stopped going well a while ago. After UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, White called out Islam Makhachev in front of every camera in the building. He was right to.
Here’s what happened. Makhachev was supposed to defend the welterweight title against Carlos Prates at UFC 336 on Jan. 30 in Toronto. Ariel Helwani reported Friday that Makhachev couldn’t make the date, and by Saturday the UFC had announced Prates vs. Michael Morales for an interim belt. White explained the move like a guy whose biggest star just left his card. He said Makhachev fights about once a year on average, that he was slated for January and then said he didn’t want to fight until after Ramadan, and that the UFC can’t hold up divisions like that. The promotion has to keep moving, White said, and Prates vs. Morales makes sense.
A reporter asked whether Makhachev had given the UFC a reason. White’s answer, per Yahoo Sports: “No. No reason.”
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Once a Year Doesn’t Cut It
Makhachev last fought in August, winning a unanimous decision over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 in his first welterweight title defense. He won the belt from Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 in November. The UFC 333 broadcast floated May as a possible return, which would put roughly nine months between defenses for a champion his own boss says averages one fight a year. That’s a title reign running on dial-up.
Meanwhile, the line behind him is stacked. Prates (24-7) has won three straight since losing to Garry in April 2025, and two of those wins were knockouts of former champions, Della Maddalena and Leon Edwards. Morales is 19-0 and wiped out Sean Brady in the first round at UFC 322, the same night Makhachev won gold. Either of those guys could headline a pay-per-view. Parking both of them so the champion can circle a date that suits him is exactly how a division goes stale, and White said so out loud.
The Ramadan Counterargument
The best case for Makhachev is simple: Ramadan runs Feb. 8 to March 8 in 2027, he always avoids fighting during it, and he said a Jan. 30 fight would leave him only nine days before the fast, without enough time to prepare. His faith is his business, and nobody should be arguing with it. But Ramadan isn’t a torn ACL that shows up in camp. Those dates sit on the calendar years in advance, and according to Yahoo Sports, Makhachev initially wanted to compete before Ramadan. He was slated for January. Then he changed his mind, and the promotion says it got no explanation. White’s complaint is about the reversal and the silence, and on that he’s correct.
To be fair to the champ, he isn’t a serial withdrawer. His last voluntary pullout came in November 2020, when a staph infection knocked him out of a bout with Rafael dos Anjos. That track record makes this one stranger, and it makes the silence sting more.
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The Real Contender Problem
This is where it tips into diva territory. A fan on X asked when he’d be back, and Makhachev wrote: “As soon as we find out who the real contender is, we’ll be right back!!!”
The UFC already told him who the contender is. It’s Prates, a guy who just flattened two former champions. Calling him something less than real while declining to fight him in January is a champion trying to pick his opponent through a tweet.
Prates didn’t take it quietly. “Bro, you don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t party and can’t you prepare for a fight in three months?” he wrote, before promising to knock out Morales on Jan. 30 and then come back to retire Makhachev. He capped it by calling the champ fujão, Portuguese for a guy who runs away.
Makhachev fired back by going straight at the Garry loss. “I just beat the guy who chased you around the Octagon for five rounds. Shut up and go train. You’re not on my level.” He signed off the post with a #maybe hashtag.
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I love a villain. I’d pay good money for a heel champion who trashes the challenger and then walks out and proves it. But the villain has to show up. A champion who opts out of the January date with no explanation, questions whether his No. 1 challenger counts, and hashtags his own availability is giving the boss every reason to stop protecting him. Heavy went as far as suggesting the UFC would have to consider stripping him if he isn’t ready by summer. White hasn’t gone there. He didn’t need to. The interim belt says plenty.
On Jan. 30 in Toronto, Prates and Morales settle the question Makhachev claims nobody has answered. After that, the real contender line won’t work as an excuse anymore.
