Every hot fighter eventually gets a free accessory from the internet, and it’s the word scared pinned to whoever sits above him. Carlos Prates is hot right now, so naturally the chatter has been that Islam Makhachev wants no part of him. Daniel Cormier heard it and shut it down. According to NDTV Sports, the Hall of Famer defended Makhachev against the claims that he’s scared of Prates, and the line in the headline was blunt: “He’d fight him anywhere.”
Cormier is right. I’ll go a step further and say the scared tag is the laziest move in fight discourse, and it’s been slapped on the guy who least deserves it.
Show Me the Duck
I hate ducking. Ducking is a crime against the paying customer. But a duck needs evidence: a declined offer, a sudden injury that clears up the week the other guy books somebody else, a manager suddenly negotiating in riddles. Nothing in the reporting here points to any of that. What we have is a challenger with momentum and a fan base that wants the fight yesterday. That’s a matchmaking conversation. Calling it fear is skipping about four steps.
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Cormier’s position, per the NDTV piece, is that Makhachev would take on whoever the promotion lines up for him, wherever they put it. That puts the ball in the UFC’s court, which is where it belongs. Fighters don’t book cards. If the company wants Prates in front of Makhachev, it can make the call, and Cormier is telling you how that call ends.
And for the record, the guy supposedly hiding was spotted grinding. Dovy posted footage on X on Nov. 10 of Makhachev in the gym doing cardio. A clip of somebody on a machine proves nothing about matchmaking, I’ll admit that. It’s still a funny visual next to a rumor about a man supposedly hiding under his bed.
Why DC’s Word Carries Weight
You can dismiss a random podcaster. You can’t really dismiss Cormier on the subject of who’s afraid of a dangerous striker. This is the man who twice stood across from Anthony Johnson with the UFC light heavyweight title on the line and beat him both times. Johnson was the scariest puncher of his era, and Cormier walked toward him on two separate occasions. When that guy tells you a fighter isn’t scared, he’s speaking from experience most of the people typing that word will never have.
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Cormier also has a front-row relationship with the Makhachev camp’s way of operating, which makes his read more informed than the average take. He’s describing a temperament he has watched up close.
Prates Is Earning the Hype, Though
The flip side matters, because the reason this rumor got legs is that Prates is genuinely a star in the making. Look at his week. Dovy posted video on X of Indian fans losing their minds over him, and another clip of Prates sharing a cigarette with Anthony Pettis in India. Picture a fighter in camp mode treating a cigarette like a recovery protocol, next to a former champ, while a crowd chants his name abroad. That is main-character energy. I love it. Great villains and great showmen sell fights, and Prates has the charisma to be either one depending on the night.
So I get why people want him in with Makhachev. I want it too. Big names against rising killers is the whole fun of this sport. But wanting a fight and proving someone is dodging it are two different claims, and only the first one is backed by anything.
What Prates Should Do Friday
Here’s where it gets fun. Championship Rounds reported on X that the UFC 335 and UFC 336 press conference goes down this Friday, Nov. 13, and Prates is on the dais alongside Charles Oliveira, Diego Lopes, Alex Pereira, Sergei Pavlovich, Joshua Van, Manel Kape and Michael Morales. That’s a loaded table. Pereira alone guarantees a quotable moment, and Oliveira and Lopes aren’t exactly shy.
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If Prates wants Makhachev, Friday is his audition. Call the shot with a straight face, then go win whatever fight sits in front of him on those cards. Fighters who call their shot and back it up are my favorite people on Earth. Fighters who let fans manufacture a feud for them and then coast are not.
My money is on Prates using the mic. Whether he says Makhachev’s name is up to him. Cormier already answered for the other side, and the answer was anywhere.
