Islam Makhachev’s next welterweight title defense could come against Carlos Prates. Sherdog reported that the matchup is being targeted for UFC 336. Championship Rounds posted on X, citing reporter @KOlmeneroMMA, that the fight is being discussed for the Jan. 30 card in Toronto. The UFC hasn’t made anything official yet, so treat the date and city as reported, not booked.
Prates has been talking like a man with a contract in his pocket for a while. He has publicly said he has an agreement with the UFC to challenge Makhachev next, with only a date and location left to settle. If the Toronto reports hold up, that covers both.
His case for the shot is about as clean as a contender’s case gets. Prates finished former champions Leon Edwards and Jack Della Maddalena in his most recent appearances. Beating one ex-champ gets you a ranking bump. Stopping two in a row gets you a phone call from the matchmakers. The Della Maddalena result is the one that will get replayed all fight week, because Makhachev took the belt from Della Maddalena with a dominant decision. Prates got rid of the same guy without needing the judges. Makhachev then made his first defense against Ian Machado Garry, and that fight is where the Prates camp thinks it found something.
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Jean Silva, Prates’ teammate at Fighting Nerds in Sao Paulo, told MMA Fighting that Makhachev was willing to stand and trade with Garry only because Garry lacks the kind of knockout power Prates carries. “He’s not going to stand and trade with Prates,” Silva said. He added: “I doubt he can go five rounds without taking a big shot from Prates.”
Silva has his own title business to handle. He improved to 7-1 in the UFC by finishing Jose Delgado in September and is aiming at the winner of Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev, which headlines UFC 333 on Oct. 24. Their heavier teammate Caio Borralho is climbing toward a 185-pound title shot too, so the Fighting Nerds could have a very busy winter.
Volkanovski, for his part, offered a scouting report of sorts in his latest Sportsbet.com.au comedy skit. Asked if he’d seen the horrors of war, Volk answered, “I’ve seen Islam Makhachev. Twice.” Prates should probably bookmark that clip.
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My take: this is the right fight, and I’ll be annoyed if anybody tries to talk the UFC out of it. Silva’s read on the Garry fight cuts both ways. If Makhachev doesn’t want to stand with Prates, he won’t, and a pound-for-pound grappler choosing not to strike with a knockout artist is called being smart. That turns this into a race. Can Prates land something heavy in the first few exchanges before Makhachev gets his hands locked and turns the next 25 minutes into a slow-motion episode of Forensic Files on a man’s ribcage? That question alone is worth the pay-per-view price. Two straight finishes of former champs earned Prates this, and the UFC should get the paperwork signed for Jan. 30 in Toronto before somebody gets cute with a different contender.
