Islam Makhachev asked for this fight, and the UFC gave it to him with a belt attached. Carlos Prates and Michael Morales will headline UFC 336 on Jan. 30 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto in a five-round fight for the interim welterweight title. The promotion announced the booking Saturday during the UFC 333 broadcast. Flyweight champion Joshua Van defending against Manel Kape fills the co-main slot.
The original plan was Makhachev against Prates. Ariel Helwani reported Friday for Uncrowned that those plans fell apart when the date didn’t work for the champion, and the reason for his withdrawal hasn’t been confirmed. Jon Anik said on Saturday’s broadcast that the UFC is now planning Makhachev’s next defense for sometime between May and July. Ramadan begins Feb. 8, which made any quick reschedule a long shot anyway.
Makhachev had already sketched the route himself. Asked on X whether he would fight Prates in January, he answered, “Carlos Morales, January. Too much contenders.” Then he added, “We have to know who is better, who deserve.” Prates handled losing his title date the way you’d expect from a man who lives on the edge of the cage. He posted Nate Diaz’s post-fight interview from UFC 196 to his Instagram Stories and let Stockton do the talking.
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Prates (24-7) is 33 and trains with Brazil’s Fighting Nerds. Since losing to Ian Machado Garry in April 2025, he has knocked out Geoff Neal, Leon Edwards and Jack Della Maddalena, two of those men former welterweight champions, with the Della Maddalena finish coming in May. All seven of his UFC wins are finishes. He reportedly signed a new eight-fight deal before the Makhachev booking came apart. Guilherme Cruz noted on X that Prates becomes the seventh Brazilian to challenge for the UFC welterweight title, the one division where Brazil has never won a UFC belt.
Morales (19-0) is 27, undefeated and Ecuadorian, with seven straight UFC wins. The last three were first-round knockouts of Neil Magny, Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady. He was the backup for Makhachev’s UFC 330 win over Garry in August, then watched Prates get the nod ahead of him. The complication is the calendar. Morales hasn’t fought since beating Brady in November 2025, so he’ll walk into the biggest night of his career after about 14 months away.
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In the co-main, Van (18-2) puts up the flyweight title he took from Alexandre Pantoja in December 2025. He has defended it twice since, against Tatsuro Taira and then Pantoja again in a September rematch at UFC 331. Kape (23-7), a former RIZIN champion, arrives on four straight knockouts, including Brandon Royval and Kyoji Horiguchi, for his first UFC title shot. The card streams on Paramount+.
Aaron Bronsteter wrote on X that he likes Prates vs. Morales more as a fight than Makhachev vs. Prates, and I’m with him. Makhachev against Prates was a question about whether a wrestler could drag a striker out of his element for 25 minutes. This one has two men with 10 combined finishes in a row standing in front of each other, and neither has much reason to shoot. I lean Prates. Morales has earned every bit of that zero, but 14 months idle is a long time to sit before facing someone who just put away two former champions in a row. The winner gets Makhachev, probably somewhere between May and July.
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