Islam Makhachev has heard Carlos Prates calling him a coward. His answer, per MMA Mania, was short and a little smug: “We’ll see who’s the real challenger.”
Makhachev used that line to defend his decision to skip a January fight with Prates. According to NY Fights, which flagged it as unexpected, he also brought up Ian Garry to explain the snub. FightBook MMA ran its own piece on why he passed on UFC 336. The full Garry comparison wasn’t in the material I’ve seen, so I won’t fill in the blanks for him.
The timeline came together fast. On October 23, Championship Rounds, citing Ag Fight, reported that Makhachev vs. Prates was off UFC 336. That fight had been slotted as the headliner. By October 24 the card was official. Prates now meets Michael Morales for the interim welterweight title in Toronto on January 30, and Joshua Van vs. Manel Kape is also on the show.
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Prates didn’t wait long to light Makhachev up. In comments shared by Championship Rounds, he said the champ told the UFC he couldn’t be ready in three months, then took a swing at his lifestyle: “Brother, you don’t drink, you don’t smoke, you don’t go to parties, and you can’t get ready for a fight in three months?” He finished with a plan: “On January 30, I’m going to knock Michael Morales out, and then I’ll come back to retire you, coward!” He followed with a callout on Instagram.
Dana White wasn’t much gentler. White said Makhachev didn’t give the UFC a reason and laid out the scheduling problem in plain terms: “Islam fights like once a year. He was slated for January, and then said ‘I don’t want to fight until after Ramadan.’” He added that “You can’t hold up divisions like this. You gotta keep moving.”
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The Garry thread got another tug on October 26, when UFC Canada posted a clip of Garry and Morales catching up after Makhachev’s title defense. The caption quoted the line “And after…Carlos and Morales,” so the UFC is at least selling the idea that the welterweight top end is crowded and talking to each other about it.
My take: Ramadan isn’t a surprise. It shows up on the calendar every year, and a champion who wants to fight around it is allowed to say so. My problem is the fix. The UFC answered a champion’s scheduling request by minting an interim belt, which is the promotional version of putting a spare tire on and calling it a new car. Still, credit to Prates and Morales. One guy lost his title shot and the other got a phone call, and both said yes. Prates and Morales fight January 30 in Toronto, and the winner gets to walk out holding a belt that exists only because the real champion picked a later date.
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