Islam Makhachev has no plans to hold anything up for Shavkat Rakhmonov. The UFC champion said he won’t wait on the unbeaten Kazakh, and according to a Sportskeeda report published Friday, he summed up his view of Rakhmonov’s standing in five words: “He’s not a title contender now.”
That would read as a routine bit of champion housekeeping in a quieter week. This week has not been quiet. Makhachev’s comments landed two days after Dana White went public, in an interview picked up by The Mac Life, with the news that Makhachev had verbally agreed to face Carlos Prates in January before withdrawing.
“Yeah, it was verbally agreed,” White said on Wednesday. He added that he doesn’t expect a champion to fight three times a year, “but twice would be nice.” White also sounded like a promoter who had stopped trying to read his champion’s mind. “Who knows what he’s thinking or what he wants to do next,” he said, before warning that a champion’s inactivity can start to back up a division full of fighters who want a title shot.
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In a separate clip from the same day, White offered his theory on why Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev and Ilia Topuria each fight about once a year. “I think it’s money, I mean once you get so much money,” he said. His point was that hungry young fighters chase paydays, while fighters who have already banked a fortune feel less pressure to stay busy.
Prates, the man left without a January date, had his own read. Speaking to Oscar Willis on Thursday, the Brazilian wondered aloud about the champion’s motivation. “Maybe he’s lazy. Maybe he don’t want to do a fight camp right now,” Prates said. He was careful to add that he didn’t think fear was the reason (“I think not because he’s scared,” he said) and suggested instead that Makhachev simply wants more time away from a training camp. Prates also reposted a Makhachev quote from the UFC PI on his own account, captioned with three lying-face emojis and nothing else.
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So the picture, as of Friday, looks like this. Makhachev has backed out of a fight his promoter says he agreed to, and he has publicly ruled out waiting for Rakhmonov, a fighter whose name comes up constantly in conversations about the champion’s future. He hasn’t named an opponent or a date. White, for his part, has openly said he doesn’t know what comes next.
My take: Makhachev’s instinct is sound, and I’d defend it in most other weeks. Champions shouldn’t freeze their divisions to wait on anyone, and refusing to let one contender set the schedule is how a title stays healthy. What weakens his argument is the timing. If the reason to skip Rakhmonov is that the division should keep moving, then the cleanest way to prove it is to fight Prates, the man who was already penciled in. Instead, the champion is turning down the guy he won’t wait for and has walked away from the guy he said yes to. Until he signs a bout agreement with someone, White’s line about backing up the division will sound less like a jab and more like an accurate description of what’s happening.
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